Well, long story short............
one was a bad pump.  it squealed loudly when tested out of the van.
replaced it and it fired right up.

the other took a little more, but eventually fired up as well.

both were Syncro vans, so they sat until they were up to temp. and than I ran them around, over snow banks, did some power slides and tested the vc and diff locks.

now back to plowing.

Thank you all for your quick and helpful responses.

dylan

----- Original Message ----
From: dylan friedman <insyncro@yahoo.com>
To: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 6:48:37 PM
Subject: fuel pump

I have two parts vans with the same issue:
when you turn the key to start and you would normally hear the fuel pump turn on and charge the system.
these two pumps just click and the vans won't start.
does this sound like shot pumps or electrical/relay?
they have run recently, just decided not too lately.
more snow coming and I need to move them.

TIA,

dylan