On last weeks show (a “vintage” show) there was a discussion regarding 1986 VWs and fuel pumps. The car’s owner was banging on the fuel pump to get it working. I think the owner needs to check the IN-TANK pump. This vintage VW had two fuel pumps, an in-tank pump that feeds the main external metering pump. The in-tank pumps on these cars are very failure prone. If they fail you canhave all sort of weird problems - hard to start, stalling on hot days, poor performance, etc. I’ll wager that the in-tank pump is bad and that is the actual reason he is having problems.