I like the distributor or Hall Sender plan.
( ecu unlikely )
I had that exact thing on a 2.1 wbxr a while back.
intermittently wouldn't run ..
and it was the Hall Sender in the distributor, no doubt about it.

it's always smart to carry a few known-good parts..
a known-good used distributor is very high up on that list.

not that big or heavy to carry ..
can totally save your butt, having a spare along.

after all..
think of how many jillions of times that electronic part has done it's
thing..
at 20 + years age ..
it would be good to replace them proactively. Nothing can fire that many
jillions of times and not get a little tired or intermittent eventually.

Scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Hardy" <david@PLANETMIND.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 11:14 AM
Subject: Stuck in Needles, need advice

> Riding along fine  and suddenly our 90 westy cuts out, tach drops; came
> back on,happened again, etc. Lights on dash still worked but tach showed
> nothing. Finally died, got it running an hour later, slept the night,
> starts fine, but after a mile or so started cutting out again, with very
> high(3k) idle. Thinking of having a new ecu and hall sender and/or
> distributor fedex'd. .but kind of a crapshoot. Any advice appreciated.
> David
>
> Sent from my Android