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On 2 Nov 97, Carlson Bryan J wrote:
> The problem that I am having is that upon cranking the car,
> everything seems to be operating fine, as in choke opening, gas
> getting to carb, etc, but the engine is not starting. Timing has
> been double and triple checked. I have tested juice to the dist
> from the coil my detaching the the wire from it's connection to the
> center of the dist cap and holding ti close to ground and having
> someone crank the car with the starter. The spark that is produced
> is very weak--won't jump a gap of more that a millimeter and is
> white to yellow in color. Upon finding that, I swapped in a new
> coil. Same result. That's when I started the volt measurements. I
> have also tried to observe a spark at the plugs, but none is
> present. That has been my most recent quandry.
It is very difficult to know how much spark, as observed in air, is
going to be enough to fire the plugs in use. I suggest that you use
a timing light with an inductive pickup. Place it on each individual
spark plug wire in turn as someone cranks the engine. The timing
light will only flash if current passes through the wire, meaning
that something downstream of the pickup allowed the spark to make it
to ground. If the light flashes on all cylinders then your spark is
probably fine.
If the light doesn't flash on the cylinder wire, hook the pickup
around the coil wire. If it does flash there, then the spark is
getting shunted to ground in the distributor; check the cap and
rotor.
If you get no flash anywhere, then your spark is too weak to break
over anywhere and you can go back to your previous troubleshooting.
Jim
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Melissa Kepner Jim Adney
Laura Kepner-Adney
jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin
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