Joe, I had similar problems after I bought my '84 in May 1997.  A bad Hall
detector will give similar symptoms as will a bad AFM.  A few months after I
had gotten those problems fixed, I started having problems again.  Indeed, I
had to have it towed back to the shop that out the AFM in.  One of the techs
figured out that the problem was due to poor electrical contact between the
contact at the end of the FI cable and the ECU.  He cleaned the contacts and
all was well for about 6 months.  When symptoms started reappearing, I
cleaned the  contacts again.  Problem went away.  Now I clean these contacts
about once a quarter.  It keeps the problems away.

John Lauterbach
Macon, GA
'84 7-passenger

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe" <mejoe@EMAIL.TOAST.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 2:28 PM
Subject: Help Doctor's, My baby is sick!

>         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.
>