[jyl]

Just a vent post.

Drove vanagon to airport last night at 11 pm to pick up wife, son, and friends from their trip. Get everyone loaded up, van won't start. Turn key, hear loud click, no crank. Put them in taxis and send them home. Parking guys come and jump van. No dice. AAA has no tow trucks that can fit in the garage, at that hour of the night.

Come back next morning with a new battery and a few tools. Old battery 12.6v, uh oh. New battery makes no difference. Not the battery. Remove plug connector from ignition switch and jumper the starting circuit, still get the loud click but no crank. Not the switch. Whack starter and solenoid with a 22 mm wrench, the biggest thing I have handy, no difference. Main ground strap from transaxle to frame looks fine. Not really practical to do a whole lot more in the airport parking garage.

So I'm waiting for AAA. Going to have van towed home, check connections to starter, and, I'm guessing, end up replacing starter.

I'd rather have it towed to my VW guy to get some other stuff done at the same time, but he's having some personal problems, not really working. Shop they referred me to won't touch the van since it is an engine conversion. Once you do an engine swap, you're kind of on your own.

That's the vent.