You have spark at the plugs?  Easy to check by pulling a HT lead,
attaching it to a spare plug , grounding it and cranking it.

If so, Buy/borrow a set of "noids" to check and see if the injectors
are firing.

My set was $10 at the local discounts parts/tools place.

On 1-Mar-10, at 10:00 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> Date:    Mon, 1 Mar 2010 20:09:16 -0800
> From:    Leo Lipert <leolipert@GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: 1988 Vanagon won't start
>
>   A friend's 1988 Vanagon died while driving down the freeway, just
> quit.
> He had it towed home, and today he and I took a look at it. We
> disconnected
> the fuel line at the engine and the fuel pump is working, and it's
> getting
> spark. We changed the distributor cap and rotor just because they
> looked a
> little suspect.
>
>   It doesn't even act like it wants to try to start. Turns over but
> doesn't
> pop or do anything approaching wanting to start.
>
> Any suggestions of where to look?
>
> Thanks, Leo
>
> -