I would surely appreciate any insight/ideas/feedback you all might have 
on the following problem!

I was driving down the parkway in New Jersey on Labor Day, when suddenly,
as I pressed on the pedal to accelerate, the motor started to sputter like
a Bronx cheer!  A million thoughts race through my head: bent valve, spun
bearing, cracked piston, undetected oil leak.  But, the motor still
pushed, although it /was/ a bit weaker.  I found if I played the pedal a
bit (lift up, floor, lift up, floor), it stopped for a while.  Kind of
like it was missing on one or two cylinders while accelerating; the 
sputtering wasn't pronounced, more like something wasn't there (ie not 
firing) than additional noise was added.

I pulled over to check it out.  No dripping oil, oil level in between the 
two marks (car on a level spot), no gaping holes in the sheet metal, no 
parts flying out as I opened the compartment lid.

I popped the distributor cap.  Whoa!  The plastic around the contact end
of the rotor had turned nearly to slag -it was still soft.  The metal edge
of the rotor contact tip was mostly black.  I found something in my
toolbag to make the metal shiny again, popped it back in place, started it
up.  Same behavior.  I was able to get it home (20 miles from that 
point), where now she rests.

I suspect of course that something in the ignition system has gone awry. 
My vanagon has an electronic ignition system (Bosch L Jetronic according
to the web page info), and I don't know much about diagnosing problems
with them. 

My initial thoughts were: timing-maybe the distributor collar loosened up 
and the distributor drifted out of timing.  (does this ign. system have 
mechanical/vacuum advance?)

Other info: for about a week prior, when cold, the engine sounded like it
was missing on at least one cylinder.  After warming up, no problem.  
Also, an historical problem has been that it stalls periodically; I 
always assumed that this was a short or broken wire making spotty 
contact, but I've never traced it to a specific wire.

These other two pieces of info make me think maybe it's the "brain."  I
had a Toyota once which, for a couple of days, would spontaneously die on
the road, like my vanagon.  Then it failed altogether.  Back then, I had
the factory manual and diagnosed it down to the "brain", replaced it ($75
in 1986) and was fine forever after that.

Again, I would surely appreciate any ideas you might have about this.

Kevin Prichard
1981 Vanagon L
Manhattan, NY
kpx@panix.com