Those who have been following my "gutlessness when first started" thread
with a box of popcorn and bated breath will recall that this issue cropped
up immediately after I had done a compression test. The symptoms were a
total lack of power and refusal to rev for the first 30 seconds or so
after being started. About 60% of the time. Other times, no problem. And
the engine didn't need to be cold for this to occur: just sitting in the
supermarket parking lot while I was inside trying to find a good value in
a washday miracle was long enough.

I tried this, I tried that -- read the postings if you're at all
interested. Take a looksee at my blog page at

http://camping.elliott.googlepages.com/poormileage if really really bored.

ANYWAYS, it seems to be fixed. I wish I knew what fixed it, but I don't
because I did two things at the same time.

Thing 1: Ken Lewis asked whether the mechanical advance might be sticking?
Advised adding a few drops to the felt button under the distributor's
rotor. Should be done at every oil change, per owner's manual, he pointed
out. I can't say whether the PO ever did this, I got the van at 68,000
miles and it has 75,000 miles on it now. But I changed the oil once and
didn't oil the button, so I put some light machine oil on it until it was
saturated.

Thing 2: When I was doing the compression test, a little circlip-kind of
clippy thing (a "Jesus spring"*) which seems to be meant to grab the end
of the spark plug hurled itself into oblivion from the inside of the plug
end of the #2 plug wire. The wire seemed to grip the plug with a nice
tight grip without so I didn't give it much thought. After oiling the
button, I replace the plug wire.

After doing those two things, the gutlessness seems to have vanished. One
of those two things seems to have fixed it and I don't know which. But
thank you, Ken, for the suggestion. Even if that didn't fix it, my button
was probably in dire need of lubrication anyway.

==

* Jesus spring n. 1: A spring or clip which vanishes into your garage as
soon as it is released. "Jesus -- where did that spring go?" Montagu,
Ashley. The Anatomy of Swearing. London: Rapp & Whiting; New York:
Macmillan, 1968.

--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR