Good suggestions, all. It is helping me think about other conditions that I
have noticed, things courtesy of the PO's mechanic. You would all laugh at a
foto of the fuel pump and filter "modification." It looks like it was
scavenged from a 1975 Skoda or something.

The fuel should be good. Wife filled the tank shortly before it started
misbehaving and prior to that I had run a couple fo tanks with Techron
additive. But the fuel filter is not OEM and the fuel pump looks like a
generic VW aftermarket item.

Of course the baffling thing is the immediate appearance of the condition
and the fact that it will run just fine periodically. That made me suspect
ECU error as a result of some input to it.

I haven't spent much time on the problem because in a peculliar twist, the
91 Honda Accord's oil cool O ring split during the long cold spell and I had
to attend to that this afternoon. I know several folk here were dealing with
that on their buses recently. I had a stroke of good fortune with it in that
the tube loosened out of the block rather than the nut off the tube. This
allowed me to replace the O ring with out removing coolant lines.

Thanks, all.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark Drillock <drillock@earthlink.net>
Date: Mar 1, 2007 7:41 PM
Subject: Re: Common problem, I think
To: mordo <helmut.blong@gmail.com>
Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com

It could be a sticking TPS and easy to test for. If it sticks closed
while you are accelerating the ECU may think you are sort of coasting
downhill and turn off the injectors above some rpm to save fuel and
emissions.

Try unplugging the small harness at the TPS and see if things improve.

Mark

mordo wrote:

> I am inclined to agree. It seems related to TPS to me but I figure I ought
> to go through the paces of checking all potential systems.
>
>

--
mordo
1990 Carat