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I stripped away the insulation at the nick and it was indeed broken or rather extremely oxidized. There wasn't much left of the copper in the wire. I cut out about an inch and it was still looking cooked, maybe all those years hanging above the exhaust
header did this. Anyway, I got it reconnected and the van runs fine, but I
need to replace more of that oxidized wire, having a devil of a time
trying to release the wire from its connector so can splice some new stuff
in. I must say I didn't come across this particular vanagon quirk in my
exhaustive archive search so maybe its a new one.

Rick Koller
'90 syncro west
'91 carat, gl

I had the same situation happen to my '77 Honda CVCC. The lead from the coil to the distributor "went away", and left my poor wife stranded at the Guard Shack, at the entry point to Loring AFB. Needles to say, the wife was not amused... She asked the MP on duty if she could borrow his gun for a minute. And she even offered to buy replacements for whatever rounds she used.

Old wiring can go bad at many points along its length, especiialy at breaks in the insulation, and ESPECIALLY in bad environments, like near our exhasts! A warning for all of us, I suppose.

Evan Mac Donald

1984 Wolfburg
1985 GL 7 Pass.
1991 Carat Weekender
1972 Chevy P/U
1993 Bonneville