> Like others, several years ago my 87 GL stopped idling in the 850 +/- 50
> range that Bentley suggests and started idling around 1200 RPM's during
> the
> colder months of the year.

Brad,

I will relate my experiences to you in hopes that it helps.

My 86 pulled the same trick last year.  Idling at 1800 rpm.  Not bad -
until I took a road trip from Calgary to Seattle in January.  The
warmer, denser air of Seattle made it idle at 2800 rpm.

My problem was the idle position switch on the underside of the throttle
body.  It seems the van would idle fine when cold, but once warmed up,
it would idle high.  This switch, once nice and warm, the contacts would
expand as all metals do and no longer made contact.

The trick to see if this is what is causing your problem is one of two
things.  Once your engine is warmed up and it's idling high, with the
engine lid off, give the throttle (the rotating piece where the
accelerator cable attaches) a push back to the fully closed position (I
think that is counter clockwise).  Although my throttle was closed, the
little extra "oomph" would close the idle switch.  The other way to try
to see if this is the problem (this one is more tricky, but can be done
while you're driving around) is to give the accelerator pedal (I think
that's a misnomer in a Vanagon!!!) a quick stab and slide your foot off
the pedal and let it SNAP back to rest.  This, in my case, you knock the
switch closed, and give me a normal idle.

With my engine cold and the engine off, I could rotate my throttle and
hear the wide open throttle (WOT) switch click, and I could hear the
idle switch click when it came back to rest.  However, with a hot
engine, the idle switch would no longer click.  Frustrating.

I took my switch apart and cleaned it and recurved the contacts, but it
doesn't seem to have fixed it.  I'm afraid I'm just going to have to
bite the bullet and buy a new switch.

Please let me know if that helps or you need clarification.
Keith Adams
Calgary, AB, CA || http://www.clubveedub.com
86 Westy "Roxy" || 87 Syncro "Hugh"