Had to be towed home last night...

Well, the poor running of the car ended up with it not wanting to drive at all last night  :cry:

Would start and idle but would not rev and as soon as any load was applied by releasing the clutch, it stalled.

Luckily, a mate with a van was passing an towed me home (only about 2 miles thankfully). Playing about under the bonnet revealed part of the problem - one of the new leads I got in GSF basically fell apart in my hand! the lead came out of the sparkplug attachment! What a load of rubbish. They were going back to the shop today with a very angry customer but  I hacked one apart to test another coil I had with a different "pin" type fitting  ops:

Anyway, I am going to try swapping the whole dizzy unit for another next, as I am now conviced that it is electrical after all, as the dodgey plug lead exaggerated the current problem  :dontknow:

Really starting to p me off now…

Sorry to hear your problems still there and got worse mate

lets hope a new dizzy will sort it

I think the fact that the lead (leads Plural?) are dodgey plus the fact it was REALLY HOT here yesterday didn't help things…

With the old leads back on (trusty 8year old Quantums!) the problem seemed to be as it was before.

I'm not taking the car out again until I have found the problem though. Don't want to risk getting stuck somewhere with it now.  

AL_Mk1 said

I'm not taking the car out again until I have found the problem though. Don't want to risk getting stuck somewhere with it now.  

Don't blame you to be honest… If putting the old leads put it back to how the problem was, it has to be electrical! have you replaced the entire distributor? or just the cap and rotor arm? (could it be the condensor?)

I'm just using guess work as I've never had problems with my old cars that had dizzy's and my F**d has electronic ignition.. maybe that would be the right step forward for you, electronic ignition is more reliable although fairly costly and not original, in my view it would be worth it

I'm going to try a dizzy next - should have a mate calling up tonight with one for me.

Funny you should mention electronic ignition as I'm looking into using the Megajolt system for the valver if It goes in. It has a diy mappable ignition curve to tweak max performance. In fact the whole thing is DIY, though my soldering skills are not brill, so I would order a ready built version…

:wink: Great minds think alike!  

That electronic ignition sounds really good, got a web address or details? might do something like that to my project if they cater for the 8v

So if you go ahead with the 16v, you going to run carbs?

PhillTMK1GTI said

So if you go ahead with the 16v, you going to run carbs?

Oh yes…

http://picasso.org/mjlj/?q=forum

Check this site/Forum out for the "MJLJ" ignition stuff.
This site is run by an american guy called Brent who devised the system.
He will ship it to the UK or there are people here who you can get it from.

You basically need the MJLJ board, some F**d EDIS ignition parts and a 36 toothed wheel with one tooth missing to weld to your crank pulley for the cranck sensor to read from.
All of these parts can be had from UK suppliers or even off ebay.
Only when you start researching it do you appreciate how many people are actually using this or similar DIY ignition/EFI controllers!

I see what you mean! fair play to the people who do that.

IMO though there might be more problems with that than what you have now initially

would be cool though having a laptop sitting on the passenger seat and tweeking the ignition timing! weeks of fun playing with that 8)

Initially yes, it may take some time to get things running the way they should but by all accounts, it is a very good, robust system!

For less than ?150 for everything you need to use a DIY mappable ignition system, it has got to be worth a shot!

I'll let you try it out first then  :wink:

If you go for it let me know how you get on! would like to put that in this other one I should be getting (called the guy today and he STILL hasn't charged the battery  :cry:  )

I've looked at this also and rekon it's worth a go.  I think you could easily make your money back by writing a how to and selling at ?10 a pop.

the new leads I got in GSF basically fell apart in my hand

Bad luck, mate

Had similar problem with GSF beru HTs. Had a misfire which was down to a dead HT - only bought them new in March 04. Lead had gone hard and brittle and was failing under load. Must be rubbish if they can't cope with temp changes. I hardly use GSF now due to substandard/incorrect parts and bad service. You can still buy the quantum's from VW for about ?26.

Cheers

markwon said

You can still buy the quantum's from VW for about ?26.

I only bought the others to try and cure my prob by process of elimination and all that!!!

I think I may pop over to VW when I actually fix the flippin' thing and get some new quantums…

Sorry to hear that Al….exactly the same as my predicament last summer -  first time a VW has ever broken down on me….

The issue is still un-resolved.    

Just in case you needed it ebay has a mk1 gti dizzy on at the mo
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4556921409&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

geezer said

Just in case you needed it ebay has a mk1 gti dizzy on at the mo
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4556921409&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

Cheers for that geezer, but I actually got 2 last night from a couple of friends!
I'm going to swap them on Sat and cross my fingers that it solves my problem  

:cry: I need to find more friends!! (that own Mk1's of course…. not that I'm a loner or anything)

let us know how you get on Al, hope it sorts the problem out!  :pray:  :wink:

Dizzy's didn't fix it  :cry:

I'm losing patience now….  

I know you know your stuff but have you tried testing /replacing the wiring from the ignition amp to dizzy . My mate Velly's 16v was suffing symtoms not entirley different from yours and he found it was a dogey connection in that loom. The amp also needs to be bonded to the metal mounting plate with the special vw glue as it uses that as a heatsink.

This MEgaJolt system like the 'Megasquirt' system?  Theres a fewe people on ClubGTI running Megasquirt, with I believe good results

Good luck with the prob, Onwards towards the 16V!!