Re: [T3] Testing out a coil, car not starting

["Dave Hall" <dave@hallvw.clara.co.uk>]

If the dwell meter stays at zero, the points must be open circuit all the time,
or not seeing the voltage at all.  Effectively it reads the difference between
12V and the average voltage between the two parts of the points.
(have I got that right? - think so).

Is the green wire between terminal 1 and the condensor and points intact?

When cranking do the points open and close?
Put your voltmeter between the two parts of the points and see what it reads as
the points open and close, both manually and with cranking.

Have you checked the engine earth lead, a thick braid attached to the frame at
the front of the gearbox.
Does the baseplate stay earthed while cranking?
Try a separate earth lead on the distributor.
Hotwire the coil + (terminal 15) from another place - maybe the starter switch
is turning off the ignition!  Though if you're monitoring volts there, it can't
be that.

Current for a while then none is beginning to sound like a bad connection
somewhere.

Dave (very puzzled!).
UK VW Type 3 & 4 Club
http://www.hallvw.clara.co.uk/
------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Constantino Tobio" <ctobio@gmail.com>
To: <type3@vwtype3.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 7:59 PM
Subject: Re: [T3] Testing out a coil, car not starting


> Ok, here's the current status.
>
> The new coil Jim sent me delivers a better looking spark- nice and blue
> when I manually move the points.
>
> Still, no start.
>
> Here's what I'm experiencing now. When you first turn the key, you hear
> one or more cylinders fire once. She really wants to start. Watching
> with a timing light I can clearly see that I'm getting a spark when that
> happens. The dwell meter jumps too.
>
> After that, the dwell meter sticks to zero and no spark, and I get nothing.
>
> I can clearly see the points moving back and forth.
>
> The points are new and properly gapped. When closed, the moving point is
> continuous to ground, when open it is not. I've tried two different
> condensers with the same result.
>
> If I actuate the points by hand, I get a spark. I even get a mild zap
> from the arc going across the points. Advance mechanism looks good, the
> distributor has little play. I do get a bit of a voltage drop when the
> starter cranks- down to around 10 volts at the coil.
>
> So at this point I'm stumped.
>
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