chris:

our '84 1.9 l had  similar symptoms . evidently, the black breather tower
was running wide open, and too much air/blow-by was flowing into the air
intake at idle (too lean mixture i suppose). a quick and dirty way to test
this is to:

1. pull beather hose off air intake and let hose vent into engine
compartment.

2. seal up now open intake inlet - duct tape works, rubber cap would be
better.

3. go for a drive and see if problem goes away, or at least is less severe.

i inserted a conventional PC valve into breather hose, reattached the
breather hose to the air intake, and reset idle speed (with idle
stabilizer bypassed) to solve the problem once and for all. $2.44 for PC
valve vs $50 -$60 for new breather tower.

hope this helps.

dan

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004 12:03:06 EST, JordanVw@AOL.COM wrote:

>ive been having this strange intermittant problem with my '84 van for some
>time now..
>i'll be driving along fine, then all the sudden if i dont have my foot on
the
>gas, the van will stall out..  no rough idle, no other warning..it will
just
>shut off..   i swapped the ECU and fuel pump relays (little identical grey
>relays in that black box) with eachother and that didnt do anything..   i
>replaced a corroded ground strap from the head to the coil and that didnt
help
>either..
>
>no strange idle or warning lights precede these intermittant shutdowns..
>anyone have any ideas?
>
>thanks
>chris