Howdy,

My water cooled '83 vanagon won't start.  Before it died, it
was loosing power when accelerating, which leads me to believe
that the control module is the culprit.  (now the engine turns
but never catches)

To get a feel for how much it would cost to replace, one garage
quoted $700-$800 for parts alone.  Local auto-parts stores have
a control module listed for $86-$149.  I'm not going to spend
any money until i am sure that it is, indeed, the control module.

First of all, am i way off mark in assuming the control module is
shot?

Second, what does it look like and where is it?
My experience is that the modules are usualy a little smaller than
a car stereo and located on the firewall or somewhere near the
ignition stuff.  There are two such boxes in the vanagon.  One of 
the auto-parts stores showed me was a little black thing
the size of a browny w/ mounting harware.  This matched the picture
in the Hanes manual for the air cooled model (incidently, if anyone
knows of a good maintenance manula for the water cooled model, let
me know!).  This happened recently and i haven't had a chance to 
hunt around the engine compartment. 

I've been told that the source of the problem could be the stuff 
around the module (wire harness) and not necessarily the module itself.

I really like this car and it's been running like a charm.  I hope  
there is an easy and inexpensive solution to this ailment.

Thanks in advance

Oliver P. Coudert
oliver@comm-data.com