Oh! Oh! Towed!

[sanchius]

[djkeev]

Well, the Van sat for a few days after arriving home.
No joy on start attempts…….

I decided to go with my gut feeling of wet ignition.
I replaced the coil wire and the Van sputtered to life….. kind of.
No power, backfire, rough running, stalling…..
but it ran well enough to move it to a better spot than where the tow driver dropped it.

It sat there for a day or two or three……

Tried to start it again but no joy.
If it fired, it barely ran.

Water, has to be water in the gas!
Those stupid vapor tanks with the prone to failure rubber seal!!!

I set about pulling hoses and collecting fuel to examine for water mixed with gas.

I replaced the fuel filter and I drained every bit of the fuel system that I could.
Did I have water?
You betcha!!!
But not a lot……

The Van started, it ran and I drove it for the next two days locally.
While it was running, it lacked the low end power off of idle.
I was thinking dirty injectors or needs new spark plugs.

Speaking of spark plugs, I discovered that I drove 10,192 miles with spare spark plugs…… but no wrench !!

I decided to make a run to Reading, about 2 1/2 hours south of me, and set off mid afternoon.
The road is almost entirely hugging the Delaware River.

I did great until about 2 hours in.
It started running horribly!!!
No power, trying to stall, missing, etc.

I pulled over into the Limeport Baseball Stadium, found a shady spot and turned off the Van.

That’s it, no more starting!!!

On a lark, I grabbed my last spare ignition coil and slipped in into place.
It instantly kicked off and idled, purring like a kitchen.

High end power and low end power.

I drove the rest of the way to Reading without any problem.

Now, why does this engine eat ignition coils?
This is the 4th in just three months……….
_________________
Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[DanHoug]

if you have time, post pictures of the coils and brand + part number. VW is very specific as to the coil to be used with their electronic ignitions.

coils die from:

- heat. either internally generated from long dwell times (extensive idling) or external.

- high secondary resistance. this raises the voltage before firing and can deteriorate winding insulation. check your wires and rotor. i assume you are using the NGK BP6ET plugs but make sure they aren't the resistor BPR6ET plugs. i really like the Monel coiled wire spark plug wires.

- supply voltage. can be too high (not likely) but it could also be too LOW where it is running on the ragged edge and any deterioration in coil performance shows up as misfire.

- poor manufacturing, vibration, wrong application

be sure you have removed the black RF shield on both the distributor cap and coil. these conductive shields can cause arcing resulting in misfires. not needed unless you listen to AM radio while driving, and even then, you may or may not notice the absence of the shield. Monel wires go a lot further to suppress RF than those shields.
_________________
-dan
60% of what you find on the internet is wrong, including this post.

'87 Westy & '89 Westy both 2.1 4spd

Past projects can be found at--
www.thefixitworkshop.com

[kamzcab86]

[DanHoug]

[kamzcab86]