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’86 Vanagon won’t start

I?ve got a weird problem with my van. It?s happened twice so far. It just refuses to start (no spark). I had this happen two weeks ago. I let it sit overnight ?cause I didn?t have time to have it towed. The next day, it started on the first crank. Same thing happened yesterday, except I haven?t been able to start it again so far. I?ve checked my cables and distributor. Everything seems ok. No loose wires. I checked all my ground connections as well, no snags there either.

I don?t know if this is related, but I?ve also had an occasional (5 times in the 7 years I?ve owned the van) glitch where at cruising speed (55-65 mph) the engine cuts out for a split second and then everything goes back to normal. This happened once last week.

Anyone have any ideas ?

Reply to
Skidz
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Faulty ignition coil or faulty distributor?

Reply to
Papa

"bikingis" wrote: > Faulty ignition coil or faulty distributor?

Thats what I was thinking, but they seem to check out fine...

I?m worried it?s the ?puter, in which case I have a major problem ($$$)...

Reply to
Skidz

Reply to
Papa

Have you tried jiggling the key?

Reply to
cvig

"cvig" wrote: > I would check the ignition switch (where the key is inserted > or it may have a switch behind that part depending on how old > it is). It sounds like the whole system is randomly loosing > power once in a blue moon. It may have gotten worse and now it > is acting up. > > Have you tried jiggling the key?

Thanks for the comments guys. Turns out I had a compound problem:

Both the ignition coil and hall sender were bad. Got a used coil from the scrap yard and changed the hall sender in my distributor (Bosch, $75).

All?s well that ends well...

Reply to
Skidz

Most VW dealers are not of much help when it comes to Vanagons. Try finding a private repair shop that specializes in them. There is a good list at

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Also, search the vanagon.com archives for postings on this subject (archives are kind of hidden under the mail list link).

Reply to
BrianW

Great! Looks like your persistence paid off.

Reply to
Papa

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