Okay, I've narrowed this long story down to a few questions in the hopes
of getting an answer and not overwhelming you all with another long
post:

1) Will it hurt my engine to leave the O2 sensor disconnected for a week
while I'm waiting on exhaust parts?

2) Three people said that my low power problem was caused by a blocked
cat. converter.  If this were the case, why would the symptoms go away
when I disconnect the O2 sensor?  Also, if the cat were blocked,
wouldn't I NOT have exhaust gases coming out the tailpipe?  Or is this
relative to the amount of blockage?  Am I missing something in my logic
here, or did I just leave out a  crucial piece of information in my
earlier posts?

3) I was wanting to blame my low power problem on the muffler shop, but
I realize that what was more likely was that all the snow we had on
Sunday was melting and dumping on the O2 sensor.  I did have the low
power problem once before during a heavy rainstorm after all.  Seems
most likely I have O2 sensor wiring that needs fixing . . . I believe
the O2 sensor that's installed now is the non-OEM version where you have
to splice into the original harness.

Thanks for any and all assistance on this puzzling problem.  I'm stil
hoping that one day soon I won't be such a nuisance poster because of my
ignorance about things Vanagon, but in the meantime . . .
Marc Perdue
'87 Westy automatic