Does anyone have any idea what's causing me and my Vanagon so
much
     grief?

     I have an 87 Vanagon that has an intermittent engine problem that
is a
     significant player in our love/hate relationship.  From time to
time
     the engine begins to miss causing the tachometer to go to zero
and
     then recover within a second.  This happens at highway speeds and
     around town causing a torque spike through the drive train that
makes
     the van lurch forward.  The last time it started I pulled over to
the
     side of the road and wiggled every wire and connector I could
find
     hoping to stop the skipping or cause it to occur.  No luck.

     The problem shows no preference for weather.  It's happened on
cold
     days, warm days and wet days.   At times I think that it may be
     induced by rough road but it occurs on perfectly smooth road and
then
     may not occur on rough road. Once this problem starts the tach
can be
     observed "hopping" even when the van is parked and I attempt to
     maintain engine speed at 3000-4000 RPM.

     Of course it prefers weekends when my local VW mechanic is
closed.
     It typically starts within the first hour of a trip and doesn't
     relent.  I can get it home and then the next day it may be fine
or
     only slightly affected.  By the third day it shows no symptoms at
all.

     When it first happened 2 years ago I tried a fuel injection
cleaner
     while it was skipping and it had no affect.  By the next day the
     skipping had stopped.  I noticed that the rotor and distributor
cap
     had some corrosion so I changed them and the plugs.
Periodically I
     continued to experience a single skip usually on rough road or on
     bridge transitions.

     My mechanic said that electrical problems can come and go with
     Vanagons and that the rotor, distributor cap and plugs probably
had no
     affect.  He told me that there's a replacement cable that
connects to
     the air flow sensor but he was reluctant to sell it to me since
he had
     no confidence that it would solve the problem.  One of his German
     mechanics said that he tried the cable with no improvement.  Only
     after disconnecting the computer from the firewall and laying
down on
     the floor did his Vanagon problem "go away."  I also tried the
     computer thing with no improvement.

     Has anyone else experienced this problem and solved it?

     Are there any measurements electrical or otherwise that can be
done to
     locate the source of this problem?

     Are there some other web sites that might be a better forum to
present
     this problem?

     I look forward to learning a solution.

     Regards,
     Matt

     p.s. I apologise for any crummy formatting - I'm forwarding this
for a friend.  Thanks i

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