That has just jogged my memory! I too had one of these but it was only in for a service and something else. I had the intake pipe disconnected whilst I was waiting for a part and I had to move it in and out of workshop. The thing would not run with no airflow through the MAF. Literally crank, start for a second and die no matter what you did with throttle. Pushed pipe back on and it was back to normal.

Matt