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On 2 Nov 2004 at 20:57, The Canadian wrote: > I just tried again. When I opened and closed the points manually I would > get a flash but rarely. I tried grounding the wire and finally I'm getting > a flash every time I open the points. What wire are you grounding? There should really be no need for an extra ground wire to the distributor body, as it's really inconceivable that the dist body would not already be grounded by the dist clamp AND by contact to the case. Any oxide layer that might have formed would have been broken as soon as you moved the distributor; swapping distributors really rules out this possibility. There may be another wire inside the dist, which can give intermittent problems. This wire is a short bare braided copper wire that is only found in distributors that have mechanical advance. Your two FI dists should have this wire. It connects the movable breaker plate to the stationary one and is only about 1.5" long. Is it there, and unbroken? Did you ever see a spark in the points at a time when you didn't also get a flash from the timing light? A spark at the points indicates that the dist is well grounded. The fact that this problem has persisted thru several dists tells me that the problem is somewhere else. I would be looking at the wiring or the ignition switch: A wire which has been flexed too many times can break inside the insulation; an ignition switch can be intermittent or resistive (leading to excessive voltage drop.) Watch the voltage from ground to each side, in turn, on the coil. The ignition switch side should sit steadily at 6V. The dist side should vary between 6V and ground as you open and close the points. -- Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711-3054 USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~