-----Original Message-----
 From: The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
 To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
 Sent: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 00:08:08 -0500
  Subject: Re: Could hot starting problems be caused by a defective
ignition swich?

 > I have been trying to solve the problem where my 84 Vanagon
 > doesn't want to start after several stops. I assumed that
 > this was a hot start problem, and have replaced most
 > everything that might cause the problem, coil, temp sender,
 > fuel pressure regulator, air box, idle stabilizer.

  If it were the most common hot-start problem, the most likely culprit
would be the starter (or more specifically the starter solenoid), or
its associated wiring. Yet you don't mention the starter, solenoid, or
associated wiring among the items you replaced.

 ****Because he has a HOT START PROBLEM , not a NO CRANK PROBLEM.****

  In this scenario, the solenoid would tend to stick because the heat
 from the engine caused the sleeve around it to contract, requiring more
current to kick it when the engine is hot than when it's cold.

  ****A Nobel Prize is in order here because Ron has unearthed a metal
which CONTRACTS with temperature. Damn, and I was so close in thinking
that the slug of the solenoid expanded with heat soak and that, along
with the gummy ca-ca which forms in the solenoid over a period of time,
causes the slug to stick.****

  We also sell an inexpensive relay kit, part # WR1, which can often
solve this symptom in a different manner; it shortens the signal path
by providing a direct feed from battery to starter (using the ignition
switch merely as a trigger, rather than sending the starter's entire
current through it).

- Ron Salmon

  ****If the starter's current draw were routed through the ignition
switch, then the ignition switch would be the size of a three pound
Maxwell House coffee can. Anyway, why cover the symptom with a Band-Aid
instead of curing the disease?****

  ****To answer the question posed by the original poster: yes, a
defective ignition switch could cause an intermittent open in the
IGNITION circuit.****

****George****