1980 Vanagon won’t start after dead battery

[Jd56]

So I think I left my lights on over the weekend and killed my battery, I used a jumper box and got it started drove to work. After work battery was still a little weak so I attempted to use jumper box again it slowly cranked and crank wouldn’t start. I thought just not enough battery juice, a co-worker came and attempted to give me a jump after cranking and checking things it wouldn’t start. I am looking at an official vanagon repair book for ideas of what could happen, and I see it says don’t use a battery booster longer then 1 minute. What can happen using a battery booster longer then a minute?

[Abscate]

A dead battery needs about 240 amp hours of charging to get back to full...80 amps plus three cycles to top off. A hour drive to work probably chargedBout 50-70 amp hours tops, or 1/3 full charge

Get it out and put on an all day, 24 hour 10 amp charger , minimum
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.ssS!

[jlrftype7]

Too long of a Cranking Session is hard on Starter Motors no matter what the vehicle is. Either Charge the battery up or get a fully charged battery pack ready for the next part.
Add a brief shot of starting fluid( available at most parts stores) to your intake via one of the hoses at the Intake Boot, plug the hose quickly back in, and try cranking for 5 seconds.
Tell us how that went ...
_________________
'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

[Jd56]

Got the battery fully charged already.... good strong crank, I think I am not getting spark, couple quick test feels that way. Also I drove to work fine with weak battery after attempting to start again seems I broke something in the attempt to restart process, my question is what could I of broke.

[jlrftype7]

[Jd56]

Yes Tuesday morning got it started with jumper box drove to work, Tuesday night couldn’t get it started with jumper box and with jumper from a coworker car. Wednesday morning got the battery full charged, attempted to start cranks no fire. Finally got it towed home Thursday evening, I’ve looked for loose or broken wires can’t find any, I removed the coil wire from the distributor and held it to a ground(hopefully it was clean enough) but no spark. Haven’t had a lot of time to work on it, that’s the plan for tomorrow when I have free time but was trying get ideas of what coulda happened.

[jlrftype7]

[Wildthings]

Do you have ignition points or a Hall sender? Does your radio work (assuming it worked before)?

The lower the voltage is the hotter your starter will run, so it is never a good idea to crank the starter for a long continuous burst using jumper cables. If an engine will not start in 10 seconds it probably will not start in 15 or 20 so excessive cranking time doesn't give much help in starting an engine anyway.

[Jd56]

Stereo stopped working not sure what that’s gonna have to do with the issue. The battery is fully charged getting full power to the starter. I believe it’s the hall sender.

[E1]

Before you get into a dozen other possibilities, have you load-tested the battery you discharged?
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‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[Wildthings]

[Jd56]

I had the battery charged and tested at autozone wed morning, first thing I did to make sure battery was good before I moved on. So I could fired my hall sender with using the jumper box and trying jump start? Thanks for that. Would that be your first assumption of things fried, with having no spark.

[Jd56]

I tried to follow the repair book test procedures best I could, is it possible I fired the ignition Control Module, i have power where it says I have but when I connect the metal to the middle wire on the hall sensor wire and ground it out I get no spark unless I am doing it wrong which with electrical is always my fear. Also another question can the ignition control module slowly fail, I’ve been having a random stumble that I’ve been trying to slowly track down cause it of been going out and I finally killed it.

[E1]

[Jd56]

No spark anywhere it seems. I followed the official vanagon repair book to best of my knowledge. So I tested the voltage at coil with key on, I attempted to ground out the middle wire on the Hal sensor, and I tried voltage at wire 3 and 6 on the ignition control module, all fail which if done correctly would point to the ignition control module being bad. I am unsure if I am doing the test right so my question now is, first I’ve been trying to search and track down all issue of a random stumble while cruising speed, it developed this after a 13 day about 4000 mile road trip. It hasn’t been so bad to cause major issue the stumble, I’ve taken it on other road trips just not right and trying figur it out. I never suspected the ignition control module as that problem could it be? Also with using jumper box, and jump starting, could I have killed it especially if it was on its last leg anyways. It drove to work ok, just after the slow crank (which I know I should of probably not continued I just wanted get home from long day at work), could that of done the module in?

[E1]

Those are questions I have no answers for.

But someone will, and with the weekend on I hope it's soon!

Best of Luck, JD!
_________________
‘84 Westy, 2.1L with Digijet, 5.43 R+P, GT Gears
"Adding power makes you faster on the straights.
Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere."
— Colin Chapman

[Wildthings]

If the Hall Sender is not passing the tests, i would say it is either Hall Sender or the wires attached to the sender. The wires are notorious for failing, much more so than the sender or module.