Almost never, perhaps, but regarding my thread last week (Weird
hesitation/loss of power in '85), my mechanic today swapped my ECU with the
one in his own '84. The problem went with the ECU! I.e. my van runs like it
ought, and his like mine did [runs pretty well for 5-10 minutes, followed
by hesitation, jerking, loss of power; turning off and on fixes it for
another 10 minutes....] I'm still going to drive it some more tomorrow for
testing, but at this point it feels like a new van. So given this info but
keeping in mind that "ECU's almost never go bad" is there anything else
that ought to be checked before investing in a new computer? Should I have
friends who know circuit board repair have a gander at it?

Oh, another computer question: Scott said the part numbers were the same on
the units except mine had a C at the end. Would this relate to the fact
that mine came with California emissions or that mine is manual and his
automatic? Or just a year of difference?

And a related Vanagon ethics question: if I DO replace the computer, is my
van still the same van? Should I give it a new name?

At 07:30 AM 10/29/99 , you wrote:
>   Your right the problem is your mechanic. ECU's almost never
>go bad.
>
>             Eric                   86-VW4x4
>             vw4x4@fyi.net          72-240z
>             Pittsburgh, PA USA     1936-Chrysler
>
>
>On Thu, 28 Oct 1999, Neil Wigley wrote:
>
> > I had some trouble with low power and occasional stuttering.
> >
> > My mechanic said new ECU. Sent it to Darrell instead, who performed
> > some marvels on it and tested it.