Hmmm. Dennis, my lights have ALWAYS gone out when cranking and come back
on after start. Never thought anything of it. I always thought that was
some way to take the load off the battery when starting. Over the years,
I have replaced the switch twice, but never had ANY starting problems
except once when the starter ran away.

John

On 6/14/2014 11:03 PM, Dennis Haynes wrote:
> It could also be flooding. Recently I had a customer come in with similar
> symptoms and it turned out to be the ignition switch. Key on, dash warning
> lights on, as key turned to start the lights would go out and stay out even
> while cranking. Turn real hard and they would sometimes come on and the
> engine would then start. Amazing that when cold the switch would work
> normally. New switch all better.
>
> Dennis
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> JRodgers
> Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2014 9:37 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: 88 GL - Failure to Start - It's Back!!!!!!!!
>
> I have a Gremlin living in my van! I just know it!!
>
> After all the trouble over the last few weeks with the failure to start bit
> - I though the issue resolved when I swapped in another  coil. Not so!  It
> started perfectly every time for 9 days straight. But today it will not
> start.
>
> It acts a bit like fuel starvation. Turn the key to aux - wait until the
> door/key tone ends, turn to start. At this point - it will either sit there
> and grind, grind, grind -OR - it fire up with a big varrooom then run just a
> few seconds, then quit - as if starved of fuel. Kinda like when you might
> give it a shot of starting ether - it catches, runs a few seconds until the
> ether is burned up - then it quits.
>
> I did a fuel pressure test and it was good - in the 30's psi range. I also
> did a start test with the gauge connected - there was no change. I did to a
> coil/computer control check, just in case. and got a good coil spark and I
> could hear the injectors pulse. I did not, however - pull the injectors to
> actually observe their spraying. That is for tomorrow in good light, unless
> someone has some good ideas.
>
> I will be putting in a new Temp II sensor tomorrow. The Digifant Service
> Manual says that for any no start situation - the Temp II sensor is always
> suspect.
>
> Anybody got any ideas? I'll sure listen!!
>
> Thanks,
>
> John
>