Well, many thanks to all who sent suggestions to solve my problem. I have
filed them away for future reference in my personal archive. But a
special thanks to Mark Drillock, our neighbor in Oceanside, Ca.. who came
to my house with his Digitool and helped me thru the process of solving
most of my problem (it still "loads up" at idol when cold). First we
hooked up his spare ECU with Digitool and began to analyze. First problem
was the throttle switch doesn't come on at the closed position (throttle
off), wasting fuel, but probably not causing the engine to die.
Everything else was OK. Next we went to the engine and checked for
cracked hoses or broken wires, made sure the Idol stabilizer valve was
vibrating, the fuel pump was working. Then we pulled all the plugs (new
Bosch +4s), inspected, all OK. Run a compression check, OK. Then we
disconnected each injector one at a time and found that one cylinder was
not firing. Checked the plug wires, then pulled the distributor cap and
looked at the rotor...what a mess. Looked like it had been fried in bacon
fat, cap was pretty worn also. So Mark ambled to his Westy/Vanagon parts
truck and pulled out a new cap and rotor. Slapped them in and away we
went. We drove to VW Paradise (FLAPS) and I purchased a new cap and rotor
to replace the ones he gave me. This afternoon I cruised around town with
no trouble to speak of. So, looks like I'm up and running again.

Thanks again to all who pitched in with suggestions and a special thanks
to Mark for his digitool, expertise and hands on help.

Steve & Jo Ann Wacker
San Marcos, Ca.
90 Carat
86 Syncro x2
86 Audi 5k Quattro