Bravo David! That'll get you a nomination for this years' Knight in Shining Armor Award for sure (if such a thing exists).

Steve
87 Syncro GL

--------------------------------------------
On Sat, 8/17/13, David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET> wrote:

 Subject: Re: Broken down travelers need help ASAP
 To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
 Date: Saturday, August 17, 2013, 12:34 AM
 
 At 02:19 PM 8/16/2013, OlRivrRat
 wrote:
 >� � � � Could it be a "D15" issue ~
 or Malfunctioning CurrentSupplyRelay in
 >the BlackBox above the Coil
 >
 >
 >ORR ~ DeanB
 
 There were a bunch of things it wasn't, but changing the ECU
 fixed
 it.� Unfortunately the bad ECU worked fine in my van,
 and still
 worked fine when we put it back where it came from.
 
 It was a disintegrated ground connection to the ECU.� A
 PO had
 extended the ECU ground by about seven inches so it could be
 cabled
 along with the rest of the harness, using two
 insulation-displacing
 connectors of the type invented by 3M (but not actual 3M
 ones).� One
 of them was running warm and the other had completely melted
 out the
 plastic around the metal insert and the connection had
 failed.
 
 An iatrogenic** problem was caused by exercising the
 connection to
 the Hall sender on the distributor -- the last six inches of
 the
 wires to the connector had become brittle and broke into
 many small
 segments, damaging the + and - wires leading into the
 connector; and
 we ended up having to heat and strip the brittle insulation
 with a
 torch and build a scaffold to support the damaged wires out
 to where
 good wire could be spliced in.� Bill's got a couple
 photos.� It's a
 work of art, for some value of "art".
 
 They're running and sounding good.
 
 **That's a fancy name for going into a hospital well and
 coming out
 sick, so to speak.
 
 Yours,
 David