Here is a suggestion from me. But before I put it down there is some background
information you may want to hear first.

My 84 vanagon is a 1.9 too. One day it appeared to be misfiring on my way home
on the freeway. It ran a little rough but kept going until a traffic jam. It
died and would not start again. Towed it home by AAA road service. I had dinner first
then looked at the vanagon. It started fine. I was a bit lost.

It happened at last two more times. Each time it started fine after letting it rest
for a while. But then one day it totally refused to start ever again. It was left
at my employer's parking lot for almost 2 months. Each week I would take a few parts
from my 83 to swap the same out of the 84 and see if I could nail the failed part.
No luck. Well, almost at the point I was about to tow it to a repair shop it suddenly
started fine. A little rough but it ran. I drove it over 10 miles to take it home.
I parked it for a few more months.

One evening I decided to start all over the basica troubleshooting. It was a little dark.
I spotted a little arcing at the terminals of the coil. I took the coil off and gave it
a thorough cleaning for the terminals. Put everything back and started the engine.
It idled fine so I began to drive it again. It has been hum... 10 years? It never
bothered me again.

So here is the suggestion. Check your ignition when it's dark. You may see something
that is causing all the troubles. But of course this can be only one out of possibly
dozens of other possibilities. Best luck to troubleshooting.

David

--- Alan Hosage <UCMYVW@AOL.COM> wrote:

> Have a friend with a 85 westy, only 60k.  He will take it out and it  will
> run fine for a 10 mile drive, other times he will take it out and it will  start
> running really rough.  No power has to pull over and feather the gas  until
> it clears up.
>   He has replaced the 02 sensor, fuel filter, temp II, fuel  pump(although he
> claims that with both the old and new fuel pump they wine quite  a bit), and
> fuel pressure regulator.  He has also run fuel injector cleaner  through it.
>    I have looked it over and there is no vacuum leaks.  I  have also cleaned
> his mass air flow sensor track and moved  it slightly. His grounds also appear
> to be in good shape.  This  van does not get driven in rain or snow, so
> everything is in pretty good shape  if not next to new.
>   My question is are the 1.9 liters also known to have the vanagon
> syndrome??  I have the factory pigtail on my mass air flow I was going to  let him
> borrow to run his van around and see if that clears up the  problem, are these
> interchangeable between the 1.9 and 2.1 liter  engines??
>    I was with him one time it was running rough, I unplugged the  02 sensor
> while it was running but it did not make a difference, with the plug  still
> unplugged I shut off the van and let it sit and restarted it, but it still  ran
> rough.
>   Any other suggestions??
>
>
> Alan  H.
> Mountain Top, PA
> 2-87 Syncros
> 03 VW Jetta TDI
> 90 Audi V8 Quattro  (for sale)
> 98 Ford  Contour 24V V6
> _www.rustedbarncandles.com_ (http://www.rustedbarncandles.com/)
>
>
>
>
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