Our 87 wagon, EA82 with  AT, quit while driving along.  According to the driver, it was running fine, and just quit.  Towed to shop, where the tech said it seemed to want to start but wouldn't fully catch. Did a compression test which showed zero on one hole (don't know which) and none met specs.  At this point, the tech called it quits and we towed it home for thoughtful reflection.  Any ideas?  I thought fuel pump failure or plugged fuel filter might explain the quitting, but coupled with zero compression leaves me confused.  Any thoughts?

Tech should have caught it, but check the timing belts. There's two, so you can loose just one side of the engine. If the left (driver) side goes, you also loose the oil pump and distributor. It may sound like it's trying to start when in reality, one side isn't getting compression because the camshaft isn't turning, alowing it to turn faster when those cylinders should be on compression. It's not too hard to pull the timing covers on each end to look at it. To pull the center, you'll have to remove the crank pulley, but you don't need to to inspect it.

+1 check timing belts.

yep, been there too.  timing belt

Gentlemen, thank you. I shall proceed accordingly.

You all were correct - in a sense.  What had happened is the bearing on the left tensioner failed, which caused the belt to come loose.  Replaced both belts and tensioners and are back on the road. Thank you again

Hope you replaced the toothed idler or it's bearing also. That and the 2 tensioners have about the same life span.

The smooth idler and geared idler should be replaced about every 80,000 miles or so.