Hey everyone... More trials and travails with my 85.  This is the
first time I've gotten the chance to get it out onto the open road for
a while, and I've been noticing a couple of things...

First off, the new AFM I installed has actually exhibited Vanagon
Syndrome once.  (Driving, driving, driving... lose a little bit of
power due to other issues, and then the resonance builds up and *BAM*
no more contact in the AFM.)  Ignition-off and re-crank solves the
problem.

Second: I think I've /seriously/ mis-timed my van or something,
because I can't get it to stop having detonation-stopping-cranking
issues no matter how advanced or retarded I set the timing.  I know
(at least pretty much) how to resolve this -- I think I just messed up
on the position of the distributor and the rotor when I put it in, and
I know how to readjust it/remove it/replace it. But that leads into
the third issue, which I'd like to tap the collective wisdom of the
list for...

Third: I've been having misfires, which are causing intermittent power
loss on the road.  Sometimes it fires properly, and sometimes it
doesn't -- and I'm trying to figure out what it could be.  (It's been
doing this power loss, with exactly the same behavior and symptoms,
since I got the van -- I thought it was the AFM, but now that I know
what the AFM does in its failure state, I can say authoritatively that
it's not.)  What I need to know is... is there any known failure state
for the injectors after a certain time frame/mileage, where they stick
open or otherwise have slow open/close cycles when they get warm?  It
certainly smells like my van's putting unburned fuel through the
exhaust a lot of time, and I'm otherwise at a loss as to what it could
be.

(A mechanic friend said it sounded like I was losing a cylinder, when
I explained exactly what it did.  However, the compression tests all
came up perfectly normal, and the spark plugs are all brand new -- but
on my #3 cylinder, when I pull the plug out, it's often wet with
unburned fuel.  I'm wondering if the mixture is too rich in that
cylinder to combust -- and if that would be caused by the injector.)

As always, any help is greatly appreciated.  Thanks for your time!

-Kyle Hamilton