This is a real pain. You must remove the starter just enough
to get to the wire. Installing it is even more fun.
    My rebuild, from a local guy was bad, twice. I refused to have
him rebuilt a third time.
    You may want to remove the 1/2 shaft and lock axle servo. This
will make the proceedure doable.

            Eric                   86-VW4x4
            vw4x4@fyi.net          72-240z
            Pittsburgh, PA USA     1936-Chrysler

On Mon, 21 Jun 1999, David Williams wrote:

> I had a bit of an adventure this weekend, I got in my vanagon to go get
> my two older boys from the airport (they live with me during the
> summer), turned the key and nothing!  I checked the battery, tried to
> jump start it and still nothing.  The only time of the year that I
> really need the thing to work and it turns on me.  Anyway, I push
> started it (about a dozen times in my trip to Billings) and other than
> that it ran great.  I crawled under it to see what was up this afternoon
> and found that the wire from the ignition switch had fallen off.  I
> cracked open the manual and started to remove the starter.  I now have
> it ready to come out, except I can't get the wire from the battery off.
> Is there any way to get the starter to come down out of the van with the
> wire on or is there some tricky manuever or hindu chant that I can use
> to get the wire off?
>
> My vanagon is an '87 Syncro GL if that helps.  Any suggestions will be
> appreciated.
>
> Dave Williams
>