After operating normally for the longest time my trusty old 83.5 Westy
(Water Cooled) is suddenly sick. I was going on a  short trip and was just
pulling away from the curb and accelerating through the gears when, without
warning, the  engine bogged down and quit. Thankfully it quit at the end of
my block so no tow was needed but I did have to push  it back to the front
of my house because it simply refused to start.

        The next day I went out to try to see what was wrong. The first thing I did
was crank it over, it started  right off. With the transmission in neutral I
worked the gas pedal to see if I could detect anything unusual in the  way
the engine sounded or ran. There was some new "bogging down" or "stumbling"
at the very beginning of the  throttle travel just above idle. This "bogging
down" did not occur every time but often enough to let me know that  it was
not a "fluke" and that "something", "somewhere" was wrong with my baby.

        With the engine running I took a quick look in the engine compartment to
see if there was anything obviously  wrong like a disconnected  vacuum line.
It was just a quick once-over but I saw nothing.

        At this point the engine had been running for about 15 minutes and, except
for the abov
e mentioned  "stumbling" was running fine.  I decided to take it out for a
short drive to see if anything had changed when the  engine was under load.
Pulling out from the curb, as soon as I put it in second the engine "bogged
down" and quit.  While coasting to the side of the road I tried a restart.
It started, ran rough for a couple of seconds and again  quit. I tried a few
restarts but during these the engine refused to start at all.

        I sat on the side of the road for maybe 5 minutes working up the ambition
to push it back to the house. Just  before climbing out and pushing I tried
one last time to start it. It fired up fine. I drove it to the end of the
block to turn around and head for the driveway while I still could. During
this 50 yard trip it ran without  complaint so I decided to push my luck and
drove it up and down the block a few times. All seemed fine.

        Pulling back into the driveway I put it in neutral and worked the gas pedal
as before. That same occasional  "stumbling" showed up. I went into the
engine compartment and worked the throttle by hand. Doing this I got the
same  "normally ok but occasional stumbling just above idle" I got from the
driver's seat. **ONE TIME** during one of  these "stumbles" there was a
single muffled "backfire" that seemingly came from the area of the air
filter (front  right of engine).

        Further messing around as above yealded no further symptoms so it seems my
baby is not going to tell me  anything more about where it hurts until I can
get some advice from the good folks on the list as to what I should  do or
look at next.

        Any hints/help/advice from the list Doctor's is MUCH appreciated.