Well, to follow up on my own post...I did cobble together a way to R&R the
center shaft on my distributor.  I used a 2x6 board, some screws, a 3/8"
steel bar, and a bracket clamp typically used for 3/4" electrical conduit.
This held the unit down enough for me to drive out the drift pin and drive
it back home.

Verdict:

Starts and runs just fine, until it warms up.  Then it does the same damn
thing.  This almost sounds like Vanagon syndrome, which it's never exhibited
before.  I do know that I had the #1&2 wires backwards, and when I was
initially cranking it before the fuel system fully primed, it backfired a
few times.  Wonder if this tweaked the AFM, which is the inevitable source
of VS issues.  Dunno?  Anyhoo, I'm looking for a 15 volt 22 microfarrad
capacitor, which apparently RadioShack doesn't carry...at least, online.
This is especially annoying, since after performing the initial maintenance
stuff, I loaded up the van with garbage, hoping to take it all to the dump.
Now it's just sitting in there, stinking up the joint.

On 9/30/06, Zeitgeist <gruengeist@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Long story short:  I recently did some preventative/periodic maintenance
> on the van, and blah blah blah

Casey
Olympia, WA
Biodiesel: "I drive in a persistent vegetative state"
'87 300TD intercooler #22 (218k)
'84 300D (216k)
Gashuffer:
'89 Vanagon Wolfsburg Edition (187K)
http://users.zhonka.net/zeitgeist/Misc/IMG_0171.JPG