Just to set the stage, I found out the hard way that my fan isn't working...
while waiting in an hour and a half backup at the Tacoma Narrows Bridge!

Van: 87 Westy Syncro

Problem:

a) My temperature no longer hovers right in the middle of the temperature
gauge. When I'm on the road, it cools WAY down.
When I'm stuck in traffic, it boils over. I put this first, because it may
be related to problems with B, below.

b) My radiator fan doesn't come on any speed. I jumpered the radiator fan
plug (per Ken's nice instructions), to see if the fan would activate.
Nothing happened. You can hear the relay click, but no motors come on. I
checked all three hole combinations when jumpering the radiator fan cable
(or is that called more appropriately the temperature sensor plug?).

I got underneath, and checked the fan motor by putting some 12 volt current
to the connections. Fan comes on fine, blows strong.

Questions:

1) Is the culprit likely to be the temp sensor or could it be the under dash
relay?

2) If the van was way light on coolant, would this cause any of the above
problems?

3) I've checked for bubbles by opening up both the engine compartment
coolant bleed valve and the front radiator one.. but is there something I'm
missing here?

4) I noticed in the wiring guide in the Bently's that there is a coolant
overheat alarm & warning light. I've never seen this come on.. is this
standard on VW syncros in '87?

Thanks for any help & advice and sources for how to fix this problem (I've
gotten consistent time outs when searching on the vanagon archives site...).

Bill