OK, I still don't have oil pressure.  (!)  I followed Mike Snow's
suggestion to pull the oil cooler and prime from above the pump.  I
did, and it worked--then the oil just drained back down with a gurgle
and no amount of oil pump shaft spinning could bring up oil again.

Since it does pump a nice steady (and messy!) flow of oil if primed,
I think the pump works.  My attention is moving to the pickup tube
itself.  I suspect (but don't know enough to know, nor is Bentley any
help with this) that the oil pressure relief valve is stuck open
allowing air into the tube, causing me to both lose prime and suck
air.

I've scanned pics of the parts in question, and posted them on my
site here: http://www.sfu.ca/~tcopley/vw/noprime.htm

I'm open to any and all suggestions, ideas, observations, etc.  BTW,
if the valve *does* appear to be in the wrong position, I have no
clue how to repair it (or even if it can be fixed at all), since
Bentley is, well...  the Vanagon Bentley's aren't nearly the same
quality as the old air-cooled Type2 manuals if you know what I'm
saying...

I'll same bandwidth here and direct folks to the site above for more
detailed info.  It might be a good idea to post ideas etc to the
list, since, as I'm finding, I am not alone with interest in the
resolution to this problem!

Thanks!

T.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin Copley        Bowen Island, BC, Canada      49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W

'82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell                                   =============
'99 daughter Margaret                            /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
                             SPEED KILLS!        {.            .| clatter!
                         Drive a Vanagon diesel   ~-()-==----()-~