hi,
re
"most of the satisfaction of troubleshooting is finding out what the actual
problem was instead of solving the problem by throwing parts at it."

I'll say !
have you been able to 'catch it' when it won't start, to find out what is
missing ....like injector signal, ignition not working, low fuel pressure
etc ?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Grisanti" <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 5:44 PM
Subject: troubleshooting intermittency

The semi-nagging no-start issue that finally seemed to become permanent two
weeks ago has again become intermittent. I ordered some parts (fuel pump
relay and ignition switch electrical portion along with other spares,
anticipating one of those to be the issue) and while waiting for them to
arrive would occasionally try to start with no success. Today I finally got
some time to work on the van (in the rain, natch) and, of course, it fired
right up.

So now I guess I replace them anyway in hopes of fixing the problem, keeping
the old pieces as spares until it proves itself fixed or not. Since I have
the pieces it seems crazy not to use them but most of the satisfaction of
troubleshooting is finding out what the actual problem was instead of
solving the problem by throwing parts at it.