[Vwdiesel] Stall during wet & wooly weather

[Duncan L. Forbes]

Hey all, weird thing happened to me last night. I was on my way home from
work, it was a very wild evening with high winds (60MPH) and lots of rain. I
got off the interstate and at the stop light when I came to a halt my car
hesitated and stalled. It then even though it was warm from 30 minutes of
driving wouldn't start. I checked this and that under the hood and tried
starting several more times. No go. So I sat and contemplated what to do for
a bit and then just because I am stubborn tried it one more time and it
started right up.

Now, as I know that I was not overheating and feel confident that my
injectors and pump are all in good working condition (having just checked
all that stuff out a few months ago), my theory was that the weather
combined with my wiring harness was the culprit. My wiring harness is 18
years old and is rotting apart, lots of cracks in the wire casing and even
some bare spots were the casing has completely cracked away. I have put
electrical tape over any exposed wire that I can see.

Could water shorting wires on my harness have caused it to  stall and not
start? I didn't really think that a warm diesel needed any electricity to
start and run. Is this a logical conclusion or could I be looking at
something else?

Duncan (Perplexed in Portland)