Saturday's edition of "The Stalling Vanagon":

Since I had already bought the temperature sensor on Friday, I decided to
go out this morning and install it in my Vanagon.  Joel Walker gave me
excellent instructions on where it was and how to get out the old sensor
and install the new one.  Thanks Joel for reminding me to put a bucket
under the car before I pulled out the old sensor.  You said I'd loose about
a pint of coolant.  I think I lost a quart or more.  Guess you are faster
on the sensor swap move.  (Ya, the O-ring didn't come out with the sensor. 
Had to reach in there with my finger and fish the sucker out!)

I noticed something very interesting while I was performing the temperature
sensor replacement.  My engine ground strap was broken in two!  Unless you
are down inside the engine compartment, you can't see the ground strap.  I
never knew I had one.  I drove my wife's car over to the nearest parts
store and picked up a generic ground strap and installed that.

After I replaced the quart of lost coolant, I started her up and went out
for a test drive.  Just like last night, she ran perfectly for over an hour
---  well over the normal failure time.  I've also noticed the idle is
noticeably smoother than it has been in months!  I'll do another test drive
tomorrow, but it seems like we may be getting out of the woods at last.

Today's question is this:  

Could the broken ground strap have been a contributing factor to the
currently leading theory of "bad coil"? 

Could it have been the broken ground strap all along?  Could the broken
ground strap make a good coil "go bad" or test bad?