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I was grounding the main HV wire from the center of the coil. Before I grounded this I would see spark at the points FAR more often than the light would flash. The points would spark every time I opened them and the light would flash maybe one out of every ten times I opened the points. It wasn't until I grounded that HV coil wire that I got 1 flash for each opening. I did check the braided wire on both my main distributors and they are still intact. I did check the resistance of the rotor and it was within spec. Today I will do these electrical checks and double check that I have the coil hooked up right! I'll also check the spark plug wires and run straight power to the coil to see if this helps. Andre > 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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~