Disconnect battery, then inspect the relays and backside connections of the
fuze block. I have seen cracked circuits in relays that create exactly your
experience. In every case, actual inspection with hand glass and good light
revealed the obvious fault. Pull the cover off the relay and use a 10x hand
glass and sunlight to inspect the solder and tracks. Replace if any sign of
overheating is apparent, dull solder, rosin leaking out of the solder,
corrosion at the edge of the boards or anywhere else. Purdy purple colors =
definite overheating. If you can see your image shining back at you in the
solder everywhere and no foulness is apparent, then it can be bench tested
to verify switching and points resistance. If it passes visual and
functional tests, reuse it and don't waste money on a new one not needed.

Your glitch could be one of many different things. Verify clean and tight
connections everywhere, more especially the battery cables at both ends and
the ground straps at tranny and upper engine left.  Verify the coil
terminals and the ballast resistor. Ohms test them while wiggling the
soldered wires. A cracked joint here can mean no injector ground. There is
another ground wire there to verify as it could be your culprit as well.
Check the elec connector at the dizzy. The housings break and can then
ground out the connections and no ignition signal. Bump it with your hand
and problems come and go.

Wiggle that, and everything else, while idling to force a fault to show
it's self. That's a basic procedure that any competent mechanic can do in
10 minutes. Shoot, you can do it. While idling, just push and pull and tap
at the relays and fuze box and around the fuel pump and all the connectors
in the motor compartment. Just some light pushing and pulling and tapping
at possibles. What does this say about your dealer???? They are not
familiar with universal fault forcing and finding procedures????? There is
still no guarantee this will find it for you, but as it only takes a few
minutes to do, do it.

At 05:49 AM 06/30/2003, you wrote:

>My wifes 91 GL with 122,000mi left her stranded yesterday 65 miles from home.
>She shut it off to use the facilities and when she went to restart it
>would crank... but not start-up.
>That got it and her a flatbed ride home and to the local dealer where, as
>soon as it got it's feet back on the ground it started right up.
>Naturally, the dealer says they can't fix it if there's nothing wrong with
>it. (they wish the damn thing would just disappear)
>
>This is the third time we've been through this routine in about the last 5
>years.
>And...I just did a complete tune-up two weeks ago. Plugs, wires, cap and
>rotor and air filter.
>Plus I cleaned all the ground wire terminals at the block and left side
>bulkhead.
>
>Anyone have any ideas?
>
>91 Vanagon GL
>84 Vanagon GL
>97 Jetta
>89 Jetta
>74 BMW 2002tii
>58 MGA
>
>
>
>Thomas Brobst
>Accu-Sort Systems, Inc
>Staff Mechanical Engineer
>215-721-5061
>fax 215-799-1600
>
>If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research,
>would it? -Albert Einstein