Driving at operating temperature yesterday, my 86 vanagon lost engine power as though the ignition circuit had been broken.  It then quickly started about 1 to 2 seconds later.  There are no signs of any reduced performance, or misfiring.  The engine just stopped.  It did it again a few minutes later.  Today, there seems to be no sign of the symptoms.  On a 500 mile trip recently, I also had a difficult time restarting the engine twice after the engine seemed to be fully warmed up.  I waited half a minute and then it fired up as if there was nothing wrong.  I am thinking of taking it to the dealer to have it hooked up to the computer diagnostic tester.  Any suggestions of things to try and check?

Oh, and this stalling symptom occurred three years ago when I developed a rust hole in the exhaust pipe that has the threaded access port in it (I assume this is some type of testing port).  In any case, the symptom went entirely away when I replaced the pipe.  No sign of the problem until 3 years later.

Thanks,
Jeff Hartman
Juneau, AK
86 vanagon

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