[aldad]

The engine still quit while driving! After a third tow to the repair shop, I think they finally found a third problem (and hopefully final) which was causing the intermittent starting/running. Besides the bad ICM and the bad cable/connector at the ignition coil, the shaft of the distributor would sometimes not turn (due to it being OEM and worn after 14 years, I understand the shaft/gear was disengaging when it reached a certain temperature), thereby preventing the rotor from sending the spark to any sparkplugs.

With the new distributor, the van has been starting and running just fine so far. This latest repair fits perfectly with the symptoms of the problem; it didn't behave like a fuel pump/relay issue except for maybe one time out of a dozen or more incidents. The shop says they are 99.99% sure they fixed it, because they actually saw the distributor shaft/rotor not turn when the engine wouldn't run. Time will tell.....