On my recent trip to Wyoming, my 87 Camper died while slowly
ascending a hill in second gear.  It then cranked plenty, but would not
catch.  Between two of us non-mechanics, we determined that A) the fuel
pump was silent, B) there was no juice in the lead to the pump as it left
the back of the engine, and C) that there was power at the source of the
pump wire.  So, we spliced in a new wire from the ignition positive to the
pump wire as it left the engine area, and the van fired up.

Two more times, with the the wire reconnected to the original source (I
won't bother explaining why), the van either died or wouldn't start.  In
all three cases, the van had run no more than five minutes.

A dealer in Casper (*the* Wyoming VW dealer), could find nothing wrong and
insinuated that bad gas was the problem.  This seemed unlikely.  

The weirdness continued.  Twice more the van failed to start, even with the
fuel pump connected to the ignition and working.  Both times, a whack on
the the coiled got her started.

ANY IDEAS, FOLKS?

Bart Cannon