Odd starting behavior MYSTERY

[plummerdesign]

New fun. This month the bus began a new symptom:
Starts fine. Drive to someplace, get gas or whatever. Turn key, cranks but no start.
Wait a moment.
Turn key, cranks a bit and then starts.
Seems like a HOT START issue.
.
Any ideas?
Thanks good people.
Cheers,
Jeffery
.
(Westfalia travel / camping videos at YouTube link below)
_________________
It is old and green and it makes me grin.
1984 Westfalia 1.9

[greebly]

Possibly vapor lock, try turning the key without cranking, wait several seconds for the fuel pump to run, do it again, and then try to start it. If it's vapor lock the pump runs for a few seconds and will pressurize the line.

[hdenter]

Not enough info. Is the car completely warmed up when you attempt the restart. Does it do this throughout the day? You could have a failing temp2 sensor and the ecu thinks the car is cold. Download the digijet pro training manual available here somewhere and get a good multimeter. Go through and test the components one by one and also make sure the grounds are clean and tight. How old is your ignition switch( the electronic part, not the lock and tumbler)? You could have a failing switch that coincidentally has worked in the morning.

Good Luck!

Hans
_________________
'79 triple white convertible bug
'84 sunroof vanagon
'85 weekender

[plummerdesign]

Great notes, thank you. Yes the Digijet manual is my pal in diagnosis (Was at my daughters house with the start problem fresh on my mind so created the knee-jerk post).
.
Vapor lock is VERY possible. If I turn the key and wait 5 seconds there is no issue.
Then again since nearly every electronic item, hose, vac line, sensor, ground wire and component has been replaced but NOT the acutal ignition switch, the target gets smaller. This weekend a new (rebuilt) AFM from FIC is being installed. Today I also had a tiny fissure crack on the exhaust collector pipe welded up. This was messing with the O2 sensor reading. The new engine being built will have a new exhaust, however the current engine needs to do with the legacy system until then.

I really appreciate the replies.
Jeffery
.
(Westfalia travel / camping videos at YouTube link below)
_________________
It is old and green and it makes me grin.
1984 Westfalia 1.9

[Wildthings]

Put a pressure gauge on the fuel rail and see what your fuel pressure is doing.

[0to60in6min]

did you check the fuel pressure? How old is the fuel pressure regulator?

[plummerdesign]

Following up on this issue.
The solution was found when rebuilding the engine wire harness. The harness section running from the Hall sender to Coil to Idle Control to the Distributor had a break in the wiring. The break was inside the wire jacket, so was not visible. Also, one of the twin push in plugs connecting the Idle Control Module had a dropped DIN pin.
Simple wiring gone bad.
Not that I was negligent, as two years back prior to going through DEQ I dropped the bus off at a local VW repair shop to make sure all was kosher. They notified me that although my Idle Control Module was new, the DIN connector had needed repair. They billed me $$ for the work and off I went. What I would not know until doing the harness rebuild was that the repair had been done by stuffing electrical tape into the pin orifice to keep it in place. Once the tape fell out, the problem resurfaced. Oy vey.
.
And that was it.
Cheers,
Jeffery
_________________
It is old and green and it makes me grin.
1984 Westfalia 1.9