D) All of the above

[BertrandMcNally]

I have read through a lot of these posts to see if anyone else with a '92 Passat wagon is experiencing the same problems as me. It turns out that plenty of people are -- but not all of them at once. One of my rear windows dosn't work; neither does my front passenger seatbelt...no big deal.
However, there is a series of cascading events that ultimately results in the car (manual tranmission) shutting off every time I come down to an idle. First, my coolant light starts flashing. (Man, that was a bummer. I thought I was destroying my engine. But no, it was a false alarm. I drove with that for a few weeks.) Then my dash lights kicked out on me. (Again, bummer. Especially on unlighted roads.) The final part of the puzzle happens after my coolant light has been flashing and then my dash lights go out completely (except for my high-beam light, when the high-beams aren't on, of course). That's when the engine dies at every stop sign and red light, and sometimes when I'm yielding as well.
I followed some advice given on another post and whacked the bejeebus out of the dash and fixed the problem for a while. But now I have to bang it more often to keep the system running. I think I have a connector problem behind the dash that someone has recommended resoldering. But I may have an alternator problem as well?
I am willing to get behind the dash and start melting metal, but I have been told that that is a helluva job to do. Thoughts and/or schematics to do the deed...