Vantelligentsia,

My 87 GL has started to stall in an incredibly annoying way.  Here's
the pathology.  It starts fine.  It gets me from my place in
Cambridge (city) to the highway fine, through stop-and-go traffic.
Then I get on the highway and drive 20 minutes to 2 hours at a
reasonable clip (60-70mph), no problems there.  Then, when I try to
leave the highway, about 50% of the time the damn thing stalls at the
bottom of the exit ramp as soon as I take it out of gear and ask it
to hold an idle as I wait for the light so I can turn or do
whatever.  Worse still, when I try to turn it off and restart it it
doesn't restart.  I don't even hear a solenoid clicking.  If I wait
5-10 minutes it will usually restart.  Not very practical in traffic
on the Bourne bridge into Cape Cod.

Perhaps this is the "Vanagon syndrome"?  Perhaps the battery is
dying?  Perhaps the alternator?   Perhaps it is my own private hell?
Any ideas (especially cheap ones) would be most appreciated.

Other info.
1. Drives great otherwise.  Plenty of power (for a vanagon).
2. Very reasonable gas mileage.  17mpg city. 19-20mpg highway.
3. Accelerator cable or pedal sometimes sticks.  Very stressful.
Can't see how that would cause this.

Tim Leek
Technical Staff
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Lexington, MA, 02144
tleek@ll.mit.edu