- Well, I've been through the Vanagon head gasket trama along with a
buch of other misc. work., but my mystery starting problem remains.
When the weather is warm and the van has been running enough to get
good and warm, it will not start after sitting 20-30 minutes or so.
There's no click, nothing. It acts like you have the transmission
enaged. You can start it just fine by jumping the terminals on the
solenoid with a screwdriver. In fact, that's how I know it's spring, I
have to crawl under the vanagon to start it. 

- The starter has been replaced ( probably unnecessarily) .
Supposedly, the garage did some "electrical work" as well when 
they changed the starter. No difference in behavior.    

- Any suggestions about where to start? 

- Booker c. Bense : bbense@stanford.edu