Chris:

Keeping your throttle wide open probably doesn't help; that's the technique
to use with a flooded engine when you want to give the engine more air to
burn the excess fuel.  A cold engine needs *more* fuel (i.e. a rich mixture)
to get itself started.

There's 3 devices explicitly involved in the "cold start" situation: the
thermo-time switch/cold start valve setup, the Temp Sensor I and the Temp
Sensor II.  These 3 things would be the first items to check.  Too, if you
have a vacuum leak somewhere the excess air it's providing can lean out your
mixture, causing hard starts in cold situations.
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Tom Young                                    '81 Vanagon
Lafyayette, CA 94549                    '82 Westfalia
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From: "80 Westy Pokey" <pokey@vanagon.org>
To: <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>; <type2@type2.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2002 8:45 AM
Subject: [T2] Air Cooled Vanagon Won't Start in cold weather

> Here in Toronto it is -4C or -10C with the wind chill, I am
> not sure what that is in degrees F but trust me its cold. I
> have been having this problem for a while and today it
> finally gave up.
>
> I can hear the van turning over but it doesn't "catch". If I
> keep my foot on the throttle and keek the key turned to
> start the engine almost, but doesn't quite, start. When it
> was slightly warmer the same thing was happening but it
> would eventually start.