’86 Vanagon won’t start

Mar 19, 2005 7 Replies
S

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 ?


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S

"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 ($$$)...

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C

Have you tried jiggling the key?

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S

"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...

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B

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).

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