>as I give
>the van gas to back up, it dies.  I restart and try again, and every time
>I give it gas, it dies. "Hmmm..."  Thinks I, just before borrowing a
>friend's car for the date.
>
>  Earlier in the day, I had reset the point gap.  Today, I again checked
>the points (seem fine), then the valves (again, fine), then I replaced a
>vaccum tube that I had duct-taped, then I put a new gasket on the
>air-intake maifold for #3 and #4.  Now, it runs even wors, like it's not
>firing on all four.  It also dies whenever I press on the gas.

Maybe water in the gas? Can happen overnight. When my vehicles act strange
for no readily apparent reason, and I feel it's not ignition-related,
I throw a bottle of gas line dryer in the tank. Costs about $1.50, hurts
nothing, and sometimes solves the problem.

Or maybe you got some bad gas, with lots of contaminants? Others on this
list have had good luck with Techron (from Chevron). It costs more, but
may be worth a try.

Funny, I just recommended this to another person on this list. Maybe
oddball weather causes a rash of these events? Or maybe it's my oddball
brain...
    _______
   /\ o o o\         Steve Maher   smaher@gi.com   75461,1717
  /o \ o o o\_______   San Diego, California
 <    >------>   o /|
  \ o/  o   /_____/o|      '80 VW V6anagon
   \/______/     |oo|        '66 Mustang Coupevertible
         |   o   |o/       '89 Son Sherwin
         |_______|/
                     http://www.wp.com/IrishMafia

 "Hell, there are plenty of jobs available! I have three of them myself."