‘71 Standard firing order

[Hammerhead69]

Hey all, long time no see. My current project on the Beetle is installing electronic ignition with a Pertronix distributor. In the process I noticed that the firing order on the current distributor is completely opposite of what the diagrams show ( #1 is where #3 should be, # 2 is where #4 should be). It runs fine in this order but why is it like this?

[Glenn]

The engine firing order is 1-4-3-2 clockwise and that doesn't change.

Don't get confused with the spark plug wire location on the distributor cap. Once you have located #1, the wires go 1-4-3-2 clockwise.
_________________
Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

[Hammerhead69]

[Glenn]

Yes, the driveshaft that spins the distributor has 11 teeth, so it's off a few teeth. This doesn't matter as long as you can turn the distributor body when setting the ignition timing.

_________________
Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

[Hammerhead69]

Alright. That helps me a lot. As usual, Thanks for the info!

[Hammerhead69]

Ok so I’m back at this project. Can someone tell me what these wires are for? Particularly the fused one. The pos. side of the coil only has 3 prongs but I have 4 wires including the one from the new distributor. The opened up the fused link on the fused wire & the fuse was blown. I traced that particular wire & it connect s to something in what looks like the front of the transmission.

[Glenn]

The blue wire goes fro the choke and idle cut off to the positive side of the coil.

The fussed wire 8s for the reverse lights and also goes to the positive side of the coil.

The thicker black wire from the wiring harness is the keyed positive and goes to the positive side of the coil.

The wires from the pertronix, black to coil negative and red to coil positive
_________________
Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

[Hammerhead69]

Thanks Glenn. Since there’s only 3 terminals on the positive side of the coil & I have 4 wires is it safe to splice any 2 of those wires together?

[Pruneman99]

You want the idle cutoff and choke on the same wire.

If the drive on the bottom of the distributor is installed backwards, it will move the wires 180*

You can remove the distributor, use a pick and take the circle spring off, and use a drift to remove the drive ears. Spin it 180* and reinstall.

But really it doesn't matter as long as the wires are in the right order starting at the compression stroke on #1. It only makes a difference if you have a vacuum advance distributor and it's hitting the case.

[busdaddy]

[Glenn]

That works.
_________________
Glenn
74 Beetle Specs | 74 Beetle Restoration | 2180cc Engine
"You may not get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get"

Member #1009

#BlueSquare

[Hammerhead69]

Ok. So I got the new Bosch coil & the Pertronix distributor in. I then got the timing in range using the test light method. We got it started yesterday but it wouldn’t idle & it was randomly dropping a cylinder & now it won’t start at all. I pulled a plug to see if it was getting fire & now I’m completely baffled. When the key is turned from “off to on” without actually turning the engine over the plug will spark but when the engine is turned over there’s no spark. Has anybody ever seen anything like that?

[ashman40]

Give Speedy Jim's page on troubleshooting engine start up a read: http://www.speedyjim.net/htm/eng_strt.htm
Remove all four spark plug wires from the distributor cap and follow the steps in the section "The test" to identify where #1 plug wire goes on the cap. Install the remaining wires CW around the cap in the order 1-4-3-2.

Oh, and replace the distributor cap with a solid colored one and not the cheap see-thru type.
_________________
AshMan40
---------------------------
'67 Beetle #1 {project car that never made it to the road }
'75 Beetle 1200LS (RHD Japan model) {junked due to frame rot}
'67 Beetle #2 {2019 project car - Wish me luck!}

[Hammerhead69]

[Glenn]

[Cusser]

[Starbucket]

Make sure the pos. side of coil is getting 12 volts as the electronic "points" don't like lower voltage.

[ashman40]