Starting problems / coil?

[Trotsky]

started my westy up when leaving work today...ran for a few seconds then died suddenly. Went round back to check it out and my coil had fallen off its mount and was dangling against the engine bock. Put everything back together again and all she does is turn over. Not even a flicker of fire in her.

Went to autozone and bought another coil (as suggested by AAA), but it still won't do anything. By this time is is dark so my westy is sitting in the parking lot at work and my wife drove me home.

Any ideas where I might start trouble shooting tomorrow morning?

77 wetsy 2000cc engine (new...maybe 7000 miles on rebuilt engine. Coil on there was a bosch)

Thanks
_________________
66 Bug

[Other 1]

maybe if the coil fell and pulled on the dizzy? out of time? just a guess.
_________________
"The bus came by and I got on,
That's when it all began,
There was cowboy Neal at the wheel
Of the bus to never ever land."

[Picasso ( ! )]

I would pull the coil wire from the distributer and hold it an inch or so from the case... get your wife to turn the key briefly and look for a spark to arc. Blue spark...good, Orange spark weak.

Make sure everything is connected corectly and nothing else fell off.

good luck

[VWLover77]

My guess is that some of the wiring to the coil got damaged or disconnected while it was off on its little adventure. Examine that very carefully, and if you have a voltmeter you might want to check that you have 12V on the (+) terminal of the coil with the ignition on (put your negative test lead on the engine block somewhere, not the (-) terminal of the coil).

If no voltage, check your fuses. If the (+) terminal shorted on something, you may have blown a fuse.

Also, when you put it back on the bracket, did you pinch any of the wires underneath it? I did that once and it killed power to the coil but did not blow a fuse.

Don
_________________
Don

1978 Westy
1971 Super Beetle Convertible


"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." - J.R.R. Tolkien

[Trotsky]

thanks for the input guys. I am off to check on it right now. I did check the fuses last night, but I am not sure if there are more fuses than just the ones under the dash.

I will start by checking the wiring etc now that I will have more light and more patience to tinker with it.

I guess this is an incentive for me to actually keep some of my tools in there huh?
_________________
66 Bug

[USMCbug]

Check your points and condensor as well. Grounding out the coil may have damaged them as well.
_________________
72 Super Beetle
73 Standard Beetle
79 Baywindow Bus
65 Split Window Bus
79 Baywindow Bus
71 Super Beetle (current)

"When war does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the
scabbard."
- General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

[pyrOman]

If all that fails, try tracing the wires individually. When the coil dropped it might have crossed some wires to the point of frying them. This could mean that they are so toasted that no power will run through them. Trace them with a meter but also manually so you can visually inspect them for damage. Good luck!
_________________
Some people are so busy being clever they don't have time enough to be wise.

[AquaBus!]

I would say check the points carefully. I had a brand new set of points break and because i had just changed them I checked everything else first. It wasnt until I removed the distributor and rotated that I noticed that the wire in the points had come loose rom where it was attached- it was so close that I never saw it while it was in the car. On the plus side, because I found a bunch of other issues while looking (its amazing the little cracks you will find in wiring when you look carefully), and replaced a few things as wild guesses (ie the coil), my gas milage improved as well as performance. Plus with all the shiney new wires the engine looked spiffy. And I never had any problems with the ignition again in the two years i owned the car after that (past routine mtc. OC)

This would be a good time to replace anything old and grinky in your ignition system, or at least take notes of anything suspect that you come across. The ignition system is wiring sitting in a less-than-ideal area and tends to suffer rot.
_________________
71 Camper- Project phase
71 kombi "Shenanigawagen"


... i remember the days when a bus cost two dollars and you had to push it uphill both ways...

[Trotsky]

Problem solved... replaced points and condensor. Adjusted gap...tightened everything in place...

I did notice that there is a crack on one of the plug lead ends. Am off to Kragen to get a new set of wires and she will be back in top form. After the poonts replacement I can already tell she is running more smoothly.

Good stuff.

Thanks for all your help guys. Much appreciated.

Lee
_________________
66 Bug