It just died, now won't start

Very strange. Idling at warmup, a couple revs here and there, and then it just died.
- It cranks over fine.
- It's been running great.
- The connections from coil to distributor are solid.
- It's getting fuel (full tank, inline filter full and smells of unburned gas).
- Fuses all visually checked.
- Electronic ignition in SVDA dizzy has been trouble-free
Sounds/Looks like electrical to me but I can't figure out what it would be for it to die on me like that and not re-start. Cranking gives no sputtering indication of firing. Idiot lights come on with key turned.

Ideas? I'm stuck at my office too!

Air, compresion, fuel and ignition make 'er go....

For the heck of it locate a cap full of gas and dump it in down a carb give it a crank and see if it fires for a couple of seconds.

It's either fuel or ignition...
Pull the air cleaner cover, move linkage you should see a squirt of gas in the varb....
Pull a plug wire off a spark plug, ground it to the engine case by sticking a bolt or other metal object into the plug wire connection while the motor is being cranked, should have a good strong blue spark.

Good healthy squirt from the accelerator pump - both sides (Kadrons), so it's gotta be ignition. Sounds like electrical problem. Any ideas?

I'm the biggest puss in the world about the spark plug thing (though all info Alan gave you is spot on). I throw a KNOWN WORKING timing light on any one of the plug wires. Just hold the light to your hand while you crank the key. You should see the light flash. No flash requires more investigating on the ignition system.

This eliminates you getting electrocuted and the possibility, however remote, that you could ignite an errant fuel or fume source in your engine bay with an open spark.

The KNOWN WORKING thing comes from trying this one time with a timing light that had a burned out bulb... Boy was I BENT!
angela

I'm with ya all the way with the timing light - that's a great idea for when I get home... "still at the office!"

Why I have no spark is the big issue. Do those electroic ignitions suddenly die when the go? Any other ignition ideas?

I JUST got the car back from many shops - all pretty black with cranberry interior - looks great and haven't even got photos up on for the club here yet!

Make sure the dizzy is down and in the hole tight ,If it is electronic ,that would be most likely it a dead module or no power at the coil which would make me say fuse.

"Do those electroic ignitions suddenly die when the go? "

Yup, that's exactly what they do. When the go, they just go, no warning, no goodbyes.

Before you blame the distributor, make sure that it isn't the coil. Check the power to the coil at the source as well. Then distributor module.

Luck,

TC

I had a compufire that just wouldn't work 1 morning when I tried to start it. Threw the points back in the distributor and the motor started right up. Returned the bad unit to the shop I got it from and they gave me a new one. What did I learn?... Always carry spare points in the trunk.

I'll check the coil and ignition power to it from the key and all that. Ran across a great website on the topic at http://www.nls.net/mp/volks/htm/spark.htm, but of course they discuss points and condenser and such. So thanks TC for your lesson from the school of hard knocks in e-ignition. When everything else is working, then that will be the likely culprit.

I learned from that website that "VW NEVER put a fuse from the ignition switch" so that kept me out of that wonder-land. However, who knows what CMC or previous owners may have done - we're not talking stock VW here.

Ernie - how long did your compufire last? I have abut 18 months on this one

As I recall, the compufire unit was about a year old. I don't think I even had proof of purchase for it. The fact that they cheerfully gave me a new one in exchange leads me to believe that failures are not terribly unusual....

Compufire's okay it appears! That's sure a simple test - run a test light from the dizzy side of the coil and turn it over by hand, the light comes on twice per revolution.

I'm pretty sure I found the culprit... looking under the dizzy cap last night I didn't see a thing but this morning, inspecting the terminals (all fine) I see the center terminal with the spring loaded carbon guide that rides on the rotor was GONE. Just a spring sitting there.

That's pretty obvious now as to why it won't spark. But how in the world did that come out while the engine was running? The shaft that sits in with the spring behind it leaves nowhere else for it to go other than straight down onto the rotor. So maybe it just popped out when I inspected in the dark and I didn't notice it fall, or it could have been sitting on the dust cover and dropped soon as I popped the top.

It could still be something else, but no way will I get spark without that bit of connection. I'll let you all know if that's what happened - it'll be the first I've ever heard of this.

"That bit of connection" is a hunk of graphite, and they will wear down. Look in the dist cap for evidence of carbon dust. Buy a new cap and rotor too. If that piece broke and fell out, I think we all know where it went. Hopefully w/o any consequence. We'll be looking for the success report soon. And the pics of your ride, too.

Most of the time we tend to overlook the obvious, I did this in my previous post by not suggesting a distributor cap inspection ..Glad it is an easy fix....There's nothing more frustrating than forgetting to reinstall a $2.00 rotor, only to find it sitting right where you left it. ~Alan

"There's nothing more frustrating than forgetting to reinstall a $2.00 rotor."

Sometimes . . . . when firing up a new engine . . . . I leave the rotor off just to give myself an "easy fix."

Kind of using MOJO against having to do a difficult fix in order to get the mill running.

Weird, but it works. Seems like these little engines are about seven percent magic, anyway,

Thats .

3 Parts magic
2 parts power
And
5 parts prayer

As the "Wizard of Id" always says:

"Frippin at the Jim Jam -

Frappin at the Krorn!"

That should fix just about anything......

Dang! I always thought is was "frappin' on the krotz". Maybe that's why it never worked right.

(By the way, TC, thanks for the distributor clip!)