I'm having a strange thing happen on my '88 2.1L

Usually within a few minutes of driving, the engine will die, or cut out. I notice that the tach needle will drop to 0 like the power has been cut - (fast drop rather than actually following the engine RPMs)

Restarting will cause the engine to briefly catch then missfire and die.
restarting a few more times, then flooring the gas will eventually let the engine rev fast enough to get past the missfiring - and after  5-10 attempts at restarting it will run and not cause any further problems.

While driving I've tried jiggling the ignition key thinking that would show any problems with the switch.
It has no effects.

Any ideas?

thank you

Todd
'88 Westy