Thanks for mentioning this Rick.
This is a very 'classic failure' on late model vanagons.
I've seen it for sure ..
and read about it many times.
   I'm not sure if it's in 86 and up vanagons..
or it starts somewhere after that..
but it's a classic common failure for sure ..
and
good call !
Scott
On 9/23/2013 8:58 AM, Richard Koller wrote:
> I had these symptoms in my '91 and it turned out to be the big red wire on
> the back of the alternator ( coming from the battery I believe ) this wire
> was partially broken. It was not completely broken and you could not see the
> break while it was connected. So it made contact most of the time and the
> van would run. This event happened suddenly on a long road trip and It got
> worse and worse during the ride home. Finally the van just stopped about 20
> miles from home. I had it towed.  I started examining all my connections and
> when I unbolted this big wire from the alternator I could see it was
> severely frayed. By the way the tach would abruptly drop to zero every time
> the van conked out.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Rick Koller
>