Thanks, Dennis and Ken...

The saga continues- I tried to start the van and it was dead in the water,
so I decided to reseat the ignition control module and give it a try-
before trying to start it I tried grounding the center pin on the hall
sensor plug to see if I got fire- the first time, nothing...every other
time it lit right up. Started the van, and it wouldn’t die. Stayed alive
for at least half an hour... jiggled wires, etc- nothing would kill it...

I’m thankful, but tentative.

What thinks the listers? I’d lean toward ignition module / coil... since it
gave the initial no spark on the first connection to hall sensor...

Thanks all...

Dave

On Monday, January 1, 2018, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Having the tach drop to "0" while the engine is still turning is a great
> diagnostic observation. Tells you lost something on the primary side.
> Ignition switch itself is easily tested and they don’t fail as often as
> some would lead us to believe. Anyway. If the turn the ignition on and the
> red light comes on, the switch is good. The light should stay on as you
> further turn the key to the start positon. I have seen the switches fail in
> a way that the ignition power drops out between start and run, or even in
> the full start positon.
>
> There are a number of connection points between the ignition switch and
> the connection to the coil, ignition module, hall sensor. So power on needs
> to be confirmed at those points. If you can repeat the failure based on run
> time or temperature the likely culprits are usually the ignition module or
> the hall sensor in the distributor.
>
> Dennis
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
> Of David
> Sent: Monday, January 1, 2018 9:13 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Intermittent stall while underway...
>
> HAPPY NEW YEAR all... hoping you all are having a wonderful new year so
> far...
>
> I was on the way to pick up some new year's party supplies and drop off
> some stuff at goodwill when my engine decided to shut off while underway...
> tach dropped to 0 even though engine was still spinning... Got the van to
> the side of the road, messed around with some connections and she started
> right back again...
>
> Ran for another 5 minutes or so, same thing... swapped out ignition
> switches (I have 2 spares) and same no start issue... waited another 5 mins
> or so and it started up again...
>
> Rinse and repeat... until I bypassed my goodwill trip and got her home...
>
> I previously had a no-start condition similarly that pointed to the
> alternator that was not putting out all of the voltage I thought it should
> have... coil wasn't firing and battery voltage was pretty low... swapped
> out the alternator with a known good one and was back in business...
>
> Where to start on this? Since the issue is intermittent, I'm apprehensive
> to just take it on a trip to test it out. I'm thinking hall sensor could be
> an issue because of the lack of tach reading when the issue occurs... any
> other ideas?
>
> I've got a spare coil I could swap in as well...
>
> Thanks in advance for any hints or suggestions.... I may just have to
> bring the test light along with me when the issue occurs to see if I can
> get the coil to fire up when the condition exists.. other than that......
>
> Dave
> 85 1.9 GL manual naughty bus...
>