Ignition Starting Issue - No Spark 1980

[jlrftype7]

Did you apply the heat sink grease/Thermal paste to the back of the Ignition Module before screwing it onto the Alloy heat sink? Did the new module come with any of the special grease/Paste, or not? Just wondering? Normally called Thermal paste.
You can buy it on Amazon for under $10 usually, also available at Computer Stores, as they use it for heatsink for the CPU.

Other than that, if it's not a failing new module, seems like an intermittent Connection issue, OR, you need to check Fuel Pressure again, esp with the fact that spraying Starting Fluid helped, versus doing nothing for you, and the way the engine died ,[sputtering] sounds more like a Fuel Issue.
Ignition Issues tend to be REALLY quick, you are running ,and then you aren't.
Fuel is generally more of a slow decline till you don't have enough pressure, or volume, to keep going
Checking at the Filter, post fuel pump, if it's running, is a basic flow check, but does not tell you if you have enough pressure to get a decent spray pattern out of the Injectors when they're being fired.
If you are checking PRE-PUMP, then flow out of the tank is all you know at this point . Still nice to know, but more info is needed.
A great way to hear and see this , is to check out the recent VW Life Video on Youtube where the guys are struggling to get an Air Cooled Vanagon to run, but FINALLY put a pressure gauge on the system, only to find out they have almost no pressure from the fuel pump.
Pull a spark plug and make sure it's not flooded from your starting attempts- it's easy to get such poor atomization out of the injector spray nozzle due to low flow and pressure, that you flood a cyl, wet the rings, lose some compression pressure while the rings are washed out, and the plug isn't thrilled about trying to fire either, all due to that gas not burning and igniting, but washing the cyl. out on you. Add multiple cyls to that, you're not going to start. Finally, if you had an that was engine is older and has lower compression, it just adds to the fun since your base level isn't that great of a starting point....
_________________
'68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto

[Wildthings]

At this point I think you might have a bad ECU, with over fueling being the result. Maybe try to find a loaner ECU and see if that fixes things. Don't know what year ECU's might interchange at least for test purposes. Waterboxer Digijet ECUs have a failure mode which causes over fueling so maybe the aircooled ECUs do to?

[LordHuron95]

[jlrftype7]

[LordHuron95]

[LordHuron95]

Moving forward, I'm currently in the Bentley on page 24.13 which has the Air-Cooled Fuel Injection troubleshooting.

Test 1: The double relay. Touch 85 to- 86a, 88y and 88d. all three had the test light come on.

Test 2: The Temperature Sensor II.disconnect temp sensor and test resistance per chart. Oil temp at 68ºF. Resistance should be 2,100-3,100 ohms. I had the multimeter at 20k and it read 3.2. So maybe bad? next step: if resistance reading too high, touch ground probe to steel housing of sensor
• if resistance now OK, problem is corrosion between sensor and cylinder head
• if resistance is still incorrect, replace temperature sensor II This reading, the multimeter read 3.28. Same positive contact, the negative was on the nut for the temp sensor.

So that temp sensor could be bad. It is just a little high. For reference this is in the central valley in CA and supposedly 87ºF right now. Van is in an open side shed in the shade so oil temp could very well be down in the low 70s

Then I went ahead and tested on page 24.15

I also opened up my AFM and tested the contact with it. When closed the multimeter reads ∞ and when I open it, it reads ~0.5
_________________
Never swing a mean loop. Never do dirt to man nor animal.


-1980 Vanagon Westy

[jlrftype7]

[LordHuron95]

[Bing!]

I know you just replaced the coil, but this seems awfully like a bad coil. They will work intermittently. Might be worth a bench test.

[jlrftype7]

[LordHuron95]

[LordHuron95]

[Wildthings]

Your 20K and 200K scales are ohm (resistance) scales and not voltage scales. I would do all my resistance readings using the same scale (typically the lower one) and not be flopping back and forth between them unless I was exceeding the range of one scale when taking a reading.

[jlrftype7]

[LordHuron95]

[jlrftype7]

No, I don’t think that would be needed.
Again, you should have only a few ohms of resistance through your wiring to add to the reading you got with the temp sensor unplugged, and reading by itself. Ideally just 1 ohm if the wiring was new.

If you are really getting 20,000 ohms with the sensor plugged in and reading through pin 13 at the ECU connector( disconnected) to ground , you are way above the value that you posted for the sensor by itself. I’m not there to see what you’re seeing, so, just going by what seems to be going on and the Bentley wiring diagram.

This really suggests you have a wiring harness issue.
_________________
'68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto

[jlrftype7]

PM sent to you for more checks and some more info.
_________________
'68 Westy- my first VW and vehicle/Bus- long gone.- sold it to a traveling Swiss couple....
'67 Type 3 Fastback, my 2nd car- gone
'69 Semi-Auto Stick Shift Beetle-gone
2017 MINI Coopers, our current DDs
‘84 Tin Top - Hilga....Auto

[LordHuron95]

Returned to previous testing, results:

Testing done at 20k setting. Steps on page 24.13 in the bentley.

Fig 2: temp sensor II
Sensor to engine ground: 2.86
Sensor to sensor body: 3.23

ECU Plug #13 to ground: 7.05

doing jump test 7.4
_________________
Never swing a mean loop. Never do dirt to man nor animal.


-1980 Vanagon Westy

[Wildthings]

Without knowing your meter, it is hard to know where the decimal point actually goes. As a guess I would say you need multiply your readings by 1000, so for your TSII sensor your reading is 2860 ohms.

[LordHuron95]

quote="jlrftype7"] I’m not there to see what you’re seeing, so, just going by what seems to be going on and the Bentley wiring diagram.

This really suggests you have a wiring harness issue.[/quote]

This image shows how/where exactly I am making contact for these tests directly on my sensor. Note: I have NEVER removed the sensor. As far as I know, it is the original one!

This is a more zoomed out image to show you what my engine area looks like and marks the sensor/wire.

_________________
Never swing a mean loop. Never do dirt to man nor animal.


-1980 Vanagon Westy