On Thu, 7 Sep 1995, brian verbeek wrote:

> Kevin,
> 
> You said your rotor turned black, does it look like
> something burned in there?

Possible, but not likely, as the blackening/meltage was localized to the
area around the rotor tip.  The inside of the distributor cap was fine,
even the four contact points were not corroded, although on two there was
a little minor melting of the plastic in which they are embedded.

> You could check out the vacuum advance membrane for
> leakage, if this leaks it would allow the fuel mixture
> from the manifold to come into the distributor, you have
> enough sparks there to ignite it.

I'll definitely check for this when I've got it open.  Could be anything 
at this point.  Thanks for the tip.

> Also, the engine could suck false air there, giving you the
> stalling idle you mentioned.

I don't know what this means, could you please elaborate?

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