Kamei Retro Racer mk1 build

yeah that doesnt look right for proper mk1 gti wiring to fusebox, though the odd thing is i guess all the 5th injector and wur wiring is there? if so thats only there on gti engines… odd!

as i say pull that spade off and jump the coil direct to the battery. if it fires you know its the ign live feed!

could you explain it to me being a non electric expert.

what wires to remove and what wires to add sorry.

battery is in the boot mind.


i understand i remove the connection with the black and brown/yellow wire then run a wire from the coil spade but pick up where in bay sorry?

anything thats a live feed will do, i assume you have some kind of +ve terminal in the bay where the alternator main wire goes?

Do you mean where these red wires go:


(no suppresor fitted)

yeah, those red wires should go to the battery +ve. so wherever you're running them to in the bay will be fine

ok will pop out to the garage and see if i can see where they go in the bay

I take it you then want me to run a wire from it up to the spade you said to pull the black & brown/yellow connector off to see if a live is getting to the coil.

yeah pull that connector off first, then jump the spade to a live feed.  did your engine loom have all the 5th injector etc wiring included, or did you/was it added onto the old engine loom

I am not sure sorry mate it was a long time ago though i would say at a guess that it was added into what was already there, i turned up at TSR when Tim Stiles ran it and gave them a 1.3 carb driver they then converted it to run the 2.1 8v that i still have, there was lots of other stuff transferred over for fueling etc and bigger brakes.

the 5th injector that is connected onto the wur and controlled by the k-star was part of the k-star kit by milford electronics and was added by TSR at a later date possibly when the engine was ran in.

edit: i think the coil is an intermotor blue/yellow one:
http://img.photobucket…Track%20Car/DCP_6381s.jpg

just wondering if the brown wire is important and will effect anything if unplugged.

thanks for all the help so far mate

basically my thoughts are they didnt change the engine loom when they converted it to a GTI, which was wrong. If so, the brown wire is a resistance wire for the old style contact breaker ignition and it wont work with an electronic ignition coil.

the resistance wire reduces the voltage seen at the coil see, which is required for contact breaker. but electronic ignition needs a full 12v feed to work properly. hence removing the brown wire and jump the coil direct with 12v to test

Still very strange mind as the wiring worked for many many years.

Anyway i will have to have a hunt around for some 12v wire here to make up a connection.

it may have been just enough voltage to work before, also the black wire you can see on the same pin is a wire to the starter which gives the coil a boost while its cranking. this and a healthier battery might explain why it was able to start and run before, but not now!

either way if that is indeed a resistor wire it needs to go

Right i followed the red wires back from the alternator and they go to all the round connectors on the starter motor so i ran a nice heavy wire i found from there up to the spade you told me to remove.

rested a plug against the head and turned it over but no spark?

also tried leaving the king lead close to the head but no spark?

Just chatted to an old friend who used to work at TSR and he suggested to put the king lead close to were it can cause a spark/arc like you said but unplug the 3-pin connector from the distributor, turn the ignition on and connect the middle pin on the connector to earth, he said if you then get a spark the distributor has become faulty…..

edit: tried that and nothing happened…

Got told the next thing to make sure of is that the original vw ignition wiring is earthed somewhere so will have to have a search for that next after and around the ignition module wiring.

TCI unit pin 2 is where the earth comes from, should be to battery but a good chassis earth will be fine

checked the earth wire coming down from by the ignition module and it earths onto the chassis leg along with 3 others, took them off and cleaned them up even shortened the earth as it was looped over but still no joy.

Perhaps the coil is just dead, are they expensive and are there different types for a dx engine?

Going to have a look by the fusebox to see if anything is loose, are there any relays in this system mate?

could be i spose, buy a mk2 golf one from gsf sorted. bosch ones are cheap as well.

try another tci as well they can fail

Is there a particular Mk2 Coil i need to ask for that matches my connections mate?

84 onwards MK2 have the pin type connection you need, before that it was the early type without the pin. but obviously you'll struggle to find an 'early' type MK2 coil

if in doubt ask for mk2 16v

cheers mate