Gerald, check for spark.  You can easily do this by pulling a spark plug
out and leaving it attached to the wire, ground it to the head.  Watch
for a bright white spark.  If you don't see spark and you aren't getting
the fuel pump to come on without jumpering it I suspect the hall sender
inside your distributor has gone bad.  The hall sends the signal for
both the spark, and the fuel pump to come on.  We have new hall senders
for $125 or if you want to get a whole "rebuilt" aka new distributor we
have them for $275 plus a core.  Let me know if we can help you further.

Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com

Gerald Masar wrote:
> I am not very good at this trouble-shooting stuff. Having owned Vanagons for
> 28 years, never had to do it before.
> Anyway, on this '88 Westy auto., I do not hear the fuel pump running momentarily
> when I turn the key to on, but if I remove the relay #53 and jumper between the hot
> terminal on the alternator and terminal 87 in the relay socket, the pump runs.
> I did swap in the relay from my '90 Westy, as well as the coil, but still no start.
> So what am I missing that should supply power to the fuel pump when the key is on?
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> Jerry
>
>