My vanagon is now up and running nicely thanks to the alert response for
Coby Smolens at Valley Wagonworks.  Thanks, Coby.  Based on the description
of my symptoms (hesitation) , he suggested several things and pointed out
that the most likely culprit was the airflow meter.  Well, I checked it and
found out I had foolishly forgotten to plug in the ECU connection after
some non-related engine work (c'mon, its back there behind everything easy
to miss)
Anyway the simple fix and Im back on the road!

Regards

Brian