Hello all.  I am a new Vanagon owner and have been enjoying the list for the
past couple of weeks.  I have a '82 Westy (manual, webber convertion) and
took it out for a weekend in the woods.

The van performed very well on the way up, but had some troubles on the way
back (1.5 hr each way).  It was missing terribly on the start of the way
back, sounded like a stuck lifter, plus something - it was
backfiring/mis-firing (not kaboom but very strange noise) on acceleration up
hills.
So I drove it for a while to see if it fixed itself - which I have been
reading in some of the forums that it does (stuck lifter anyway).

Did not fix itself, pulled over, gave her a drink of oil and Marvel mystery
oil - she was a little low on oil, not much.  Restarted and ran the same way
it did on the way up.

After returning home, it would not restart, but I had good batter power.
Almost like the starter could not turn the engine over.  I have had slow
starts (motor turning over very slow) after a long run, but it had never
refused to start.  Waited 10 min. and she started up again (slow turn over,
but started).

Any suggestions on the slow starting after 45 min to an hour on the road
and/or the misfiring.

I have gotten the Bentley, Haynes and Idot's guide manuals and have just
started to get into them.

We had a blast in the camper and I am looking forward to many years of fun
and a bit of wrenching in my future.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.  This list is very informative.

Cheers,
Frank