Just remembered I left the ignition switched on for 2 hours yesterday,although the distributor wires weren’t connected,could I have damaged the coil giving me the ultra low reading?
Don’t worry,I understand,went through the same test again after work,the 1.9v result is with the jumper wire connected to a crankcase bolt with ignition on,removing the jumper wire I get 10v. The jumper wire gets hot quickly.
Getting desperate now,I’ve fitted a Bosch 3 ohm coil,new and measures 3.8ohm and 11.8v across the two terminal posts,yet no spark off hot lead when cranking,only when turning ignition off! Any ides before I swap it all for the old points distributor? Tia.
Check the terminals on the back of the ign switch to see which ones stay powered whilst cranking and that the one to the coil is on it. If there aren't any, then it's a problem with the ign sw internals
Is this for your type 2, I seem to recall that the switches go faulty & disconect the ignition current when turned to the starting position. When I had ours, the original owner had fitted a relay off the starter circuit & I asked someone that I knew that bought & sold loads of them over the years, I was told it was probably to bypass a faulty switch & it was a regular fault. It seemed fine, but I bought a new switch anyway.
I’ve measured the voltage between the ht output of the coil and the negative terminal and get 10.8 with ignition on,then 6.8 cranking,could this low voltage be the cause before I buy a new switch ?
That was my first thought on Saturday,the only ones in double would be from the electronic distributor,there’s a red and a black,so I placed the red to the coil positive and black to negative.of course I didn’t w write them down .
Further to my post 33, I have spoken to the mechanic who fitted the relay in the ignition system. It was to overcome voltage drop caused by the starter & the wiring from the back to the ignition switch & back to the coil. He told me he used to always fit them as the drop sometimes would stop it starting. The relay was from the battery to the coil with an energising wire from the starter, giving 12 volt direct when the key was turned. I removed all this & once or twice it wouldn’t go, you could overcome it by running a jumper across from the battery to the coil temporarily. All a bit of a recollection now, it was a long time ago.
Having just returned from a 4 week tour of France,having to freewheel my camper up the slip road off the motorway,round a roundabout and park safely my first item to check was the coil,another one had failed after just 4500m,after talking to a fellow vw camper owner he said he mounted his upside down,eg,the king lead at the bottom,presumably to retain the oil around the ht terminal.
Sure enough when I look in the workshop manual that’s how they’re mounted,after all those years .