Is there a "safety" switch involved with the gear selector? (i.e. so
it can't be started "in gear") Maybe it's iffy. I quickly looked
through Bently but couldn't find one.....

Is wiring and quality of contacts 100%? (or something close to that!)

Cheers,

Neil.

On 11/9/07, TJ Hemrick <x53gunner@gmail.com> wrote:
> After a fruitless search of the archives (they locked up-again and now not
> accessible), I have a question for all the pro's and anyone who's had to get
> underneath their van and jump the starter contacts more than once.  If the
> switch portion is good (tested and verified) but I can start it up via the
> starter/solenoid contacts, is there ANYTHING else that I may have missed?
> Maybe some hidden component?  Some secret VW Engineer torture trick?  The
> switch portion of the ignition was an easy suspect as it hesitated (or a
> short pause) when you turn the key and 1-2 seconds later it would turn
> over.  Now, it won't turn over at all unless I climb underneath and do it
> the old school way.  It's an 87 Wolfsburg with an automatic.  I'm just
> throwing it out there BEFORE I climb underneath and start pulling the
> starter.
>   Now don't start a digest war over this one.  Me, I'm inclined to spend the
> money and get a good replacement starter (aka Bosch) from a vendor.
> Butttttt, some of you will swear by getting a no name starter one at FLAPS.
> Great guarantee from the latter but most of you have mentioned that you had
> to swap them out 2-3 times before you found one that would go the distance.
>
>   I've been fortunate for a very long time that I never had starter problems
> and overlooked most of the list comments.  Now, that's going to bite me.   I
> still haven't located the cause for my stalling and hard to start issue.  A
> horrible time for the starter system to act up.  German engineering at it's
> finest!
>
> TJ
>
> 87 Wolfie
> 87 Syncro
>

--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia -
"Jaco"  (Bustorius)

http://web.mac.com/tubaneil