I'm posting this to get it into the usenet archives. Hopefully, this saves someone else some headaches. :-)
I have a 96 half ton chevy express van. The problem was that it would occasionally die leaving us stranded. The problem acted like a bad fuel pump. After towing home, it would mysteriously start the next day and run for a while longer, maybe a month.
We towed it to the mechanic hoping it would break for him. Sure enough, after towing there one night, it started for the mechanic just fine the next day. After several days of perfect operation, I stopped back by to pick it up. I started the van and it died. I didn't even get out of the parking space. The mechanic was still there and ran out with some test equipment.
It turned out to be a bad fuel pump. It would quit working whenever the ambient temperature would drop below maybe 15 degrees. I've never seen a fuel pump do this before. I always thought that once they died, they were dead for good. A new fuel pump fixed the problem.
brian