Hey all,
Well, went today to pick up my rebuilt starter from Pep Boys.  Paid the
other 50% of the price and took it home.  

Got the starter in easy enough, threaded the 15-mm nut on the stud down
below and then, thankfully, a friend walked by and I employed his
services to put the bolt and 17mm nut on.  Got everything tightened
down, then hooked up all the vacuum lines and other things I had to
disconnect in the engine compartment to get to that damn nut.  Got back
under the car and hooked up all the electrical connections to the
starter.  Put the wheel back on, cranked that sucker down, hooked the
battery back up, and that's when the idiot factor set in:

Get in the driver's seat, turn the key to on, lights light up, turn the
key to start, starter cranks (very nicely!), engine catches and then
immediately dies.  Try it again and same thing.  Try it again and engine
doesn't even bother catching, it just keeps turning over.  I figure I've
probably flooded it by now so I sit and wait for a minute.  Try it again
and same deal.  Get under car and check the fuel pump connection on the
solenoid.  Looks OK to me.  Try again.  Same thing.  So I sit on the
curb for a minute and think.  I wonder to myself if I've hooked
everything up.  Get back under the car and feel around for loose wires.
Sure enough, hiding behind that big heater hose I found a connection
that's supposed to go on terminal 30 of the solenoid.  Hook that up,
crawl out, try starting again and it starts right up!  That wire
probably had something to do with the fuel injection.  I duplicated the
condition that had caused the car not to start before and it still
starts.  So I guess the trouble was in the solenoid.  

Now, when I got my new starter at Pep Boys, they didn't take my old one
back like most places do.  So now I have a starter that I need to get
rid of.  The solenoid is bad but the starter motor itself is A-OK.  If
anybody wants a spare or one to rebuild, let me know.  I have no use for
it.  The starter is for a '78 bus (but I imagine it will fit from '76 to
maybe '83.5, if the Vanagon 2.0L used the same starter) with a manual
transmission.  I know there's a different starter for those buses with
automatic transmissions.  If anybody wants it, let me know.  

Thanks for the help everybody, I like it when a job ends up working out
successfully.

Take care,
Sean