It's all in the timing.......

Help. My sons and I have just completed installing a mk3 Golf 1.8 litre engine in our Mk1 Golf Cabriolet. I'm no expert mechanic so it's been a great learning experience for all of us but we've hit a brick wall right at the last hurdle. Is that a mixed metaphor?

The Mk3 engine we've installed was originally a fuel injection motor and therefore had no vacuum advance on the distributor being fully electronic engine management. We've used our inlet manifold and Weber carb from the out-going Mk1 engine on the in-coming Mk3 engine and therefore we had to install the distributor from the Mk1 engine in order to have vacuum advance. I've never removed and replaced a distributor before and I think we've totally ruined the timing on the Mk3 engine. We tried to do it really carefully and follow the instructions in the workshop manual, but when we got it finally fully installed and plumbed/wired in this afternoon it won't start. It struggles to turn over and won't fire at all. I'm no expert but it really sounds like a timing issue to me.

Assuming that it is a timing problem how do you get the timing right again if you've managed to stuff it? Help, please help. This has been a long project and we are now three very disappointed men.

Thanks for any help, David.

wat engine was the mk1 to start with mate?  
1.3?
1.6?

if 1.3 you may need a dizzy off a mk1 gti if its electronic ignition, as for the timing it is possible to to put the dizzy in 180 degrees out (iv done this b4   )

hope this helps,

also compare the 2 dizzys for length and so on

foxy

on the 1.8 if you get the engine to tdc the rotor arm should be pointing towards number 1 plug

so line up all the timing marks and see where the rotor arm points