Clearly a wiring problem. Bad connection or broken wire. read the study
the bentley. Then use an ohm meter and trace out the wires. It's easy
once you understand the schematics. You will find one of the wires to the
ECU is not making connection. In my 1986 (different animal) this was the
fix I had to do, after the dealer said "repalce the ECU".

            Eric                   86-VW4x4
            vw4x4@fyi.net          72-240z
            Pittsburgh, PA USA     1936-Chrysler

On Sat, 25 Jul 1998, David Chasteen wrote:

> OK
> As some of you know, I have spent the afternoon trying to run down a problem in the FI system on my 82 Westy.  About 30 minutes ago, I had it running well and it had been idling for about 15 minutes.  Thought I might have lucked into a fix so I decided to put the engine lid back on.  Kinda slipped with the lid and dropped the leading edge on the deck just above the alternator.  Did not hit the engine in any way.  The engine died.  Tried to start it back up and it began to run rich and smokey again. (Aargh!)  Let it sit for about 5 minutes and it started back up and idled with no problem.
> Just for a fluke, I thought I might try and re-create the incident.  Took my screwdriver and struck the deck in approximately the same place.  Same thing happened.  Eventually repeated the process two more times.  Each time, the same thing happened.
>
> Close inspection shows that NO wires run underneath that particular area of the deck.  The only thing close is the license plate lights, and they are working fine.
>
> The only thing I can think of is that there is something loose in the ECM that is being effected by vibration.  The ECM is the only thing close enough to even receive some of the shock.
>
> Has anybody heard about this happening before?
>
> Chaz
> '82 Westy "Peewee"
> Brownfield, Texas
>