what I can say is that the times I have seen a waterboxer engine not
run............
usually it was lack of ignition. ( like there was fuel pressure and the
injectors were being triggered by the ECU )

personally............I don't think I've ever found a coil that just would
not work.
but I have seen one that would intermittently 'shut off' ............that
was on an inline CIS 1.8 Rabbit engine in a vanagon, with a points
distributor.
It would sit there idling, then shut off like someone turned the key off.
Another coil fixed it.

You can ohm check the coil - spec for that in Bentley.
I find that coils are 'nebulous' ..............they get old and need to be
replaced, but don't often fail outright.

the last time I want I went to look at a buddy's 1.9 waterboxer that just
quite on him, after driving 200 freeway miles and then getting to the bottom
of his driveway.............I brought the distributor from his other van's
1.9 wbxr engine.
The bad distributor was just intermittent ..........
putting in the other one fixed perfectly.

but you should have a noid light so you can be sure the ECU is triggering
the injectors.  Very valuable little tool.
Hope you find whatever it is !
Scott
www.turbobvans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Felder" <jim.felder@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 2:33 PM
Subject: Bad coil? Car dead at walmart

> The 2.1 stranded my wife at walmart this afternoon. I checked for fuel
> pressure... no problem. I had an inductive spark tester in the car,
> and it showed no fire at all. The car was running perfectly on the way
> there.
>
> Is this likely the coil? How do I test it? How do I get to it to test it?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jim