Help me im going doolally

[juliet 0]

To cut a long story short, the car was running like a dream then whilst driving along it started spluttering and wouldnt run. I stopped the car disconected the battery ( quick reset ) and nothing. Disconnected the MAF and car wont tick over but once going goes like you know what off a hot shovel. With it connected the MPG goes down to 7 but unconnected up to 21 mpg. when it was running fine it did 27 mpg. iv replaced the Lambda, iv had 4 MAF's all second hand with no difference when iv tried them. Surly not all 4 can be broken. Iv hunted the net to find out if you can self test these old style MAF's and found nothing. It does have the old 2 pin connectors for diagnoisis but due to the fact a friend that works at VW factory in Germany says this is a rare exsample of the very earliest VRs not alot can be gained from this early diagnostic system. Not sure what to do really

[Damo 85 0]

have you tried the usual plugs/leads/coilpack route??