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On 9 Sep 2006 at 14:59, Constantino Tobio wrote: > 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. Okay, this part sounds fine. > After that, the dwell meter sticks to zero and no spark, and I get > nothing. You have the dwell meter hooked up between the points terminal on the coil and ground, right? If you move the coil wire to the other side of the coil then the meter needle should peg. (Just do this briefly.) Zero dwell indicates that the coil is getting no ground thru the points after the initial jump. This could be caused by a dwell meter that is dead or by some failure in the wiring between the coil and ground, via the points. First, I'd suggest using the dwell meter on a car that is working, just to verify that the dwell meter still actually works. You'll have to find another old car with points to do this: Most electronic ignitions will damage the dwell meter. You can substitute an old style analog voltmeter for the dwell meter, and just verify that the needle goes up to 12 V when the points are open and down to zero when the points are closed and oscillates somewhere in between when you crank the engine. If the dwell meter is working, check all the wires: coil to dist, dist to condensor, dist to points. One of them may be broken under the insulation. You may just need a new set of points, or a quick touch with a points file to clean off some oxidation there and restore good contact. -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~