HELP! No Spark! ):

Hello, as titled im in a spot off bother with my 1.3 GF, i cant get a spark, im not sure wether my power or earths are in the right places :dontknow:
i have replaced= coil,ht leads,cap,roter arm, terminal battery leads all that jazz but im gettin no spark in the distributor at all, nothing!!  but i think im getting power to the distributor from the coil and i think the condensor is ok, bellow are some pictures, off the dizzy and coil. all comments and advise wellcome, please help urgentt!! :cry:


red=live yellow=earth

circled red are live power and circled yellow are negitive earth

many thanks

pingu

Anyone???????   

the one on the metal part of dizzy is just to reduce interferance, it is earthed to some caps with a metal shroud. remove that wire its not required.

I think you should have a wire from the contact breaker to the coil -ve thats it, not 100% hopefully someone with points can chip in here. i dont have my hayes to hand else id check

Check your points
(you'll need feeler blade 0.35mm or as a get you home method a Rizla packet).

Disconnect battery.

you can do this on the car but for the sake of removing x2 10mm bolts and putting corresponding marks on the body of the distributor and on the head, you may as well remove it, it's alot easier just remember to mark up the dizzy before you undo the x2 bolts

Remove the cap and rotor arm, remove the three screws, slide off bearing/end piece, remove terminal from points, unclip the pressure spring, slide off the one half of the points, check the contact for pitting, burning, wear, oil etc (they can look ok sometimes and still be dud), if it looks dodgey replace. Remove fixed part of contact breaker points, carefully undo screw (don't drop it) remove fixed contact and check for same as before, looks dodgey replace.

Refitting.
Refit the fixed contact but do not tighten fully, refit moving contact with a tiny bit of greese under the heel where it sits on the 4 lobe cam inside distributor. turn the engine over by hand or if the dizzy is off then turn the distributor drive until the contact heel is sat right on top of one of the lobes (open) not before not after. Move the fixed contact up until you get a very slight bit of resistance with a .35mm feeler blade. refit the bearing/end piece check again (may have some play in distributor shaft), adjust if necessary. Refit everything else.

I always used to replace my points and condensor as a pair. until I got racked of with changing them lots (vac advance leaking and an oil leak through the dizzy, ate the points) so fitted an electronic ignition kit. Should have bought a new dizzy but 30 buff on a ignition kit or 120 buff on a new dizzy to keep me going till I do the engine conversion…

wires look ok I think but remove the dizzy earth wire if its going to the coil.

Should have gone down and checked against my car, They are the wrong way round…

I have an electronic Dizzy fitted to my 1.3 mk1 but still have no spark, can you put up a photo or diagram of the wiring for the new dizzy so that i can check its right  :wink:

If its a Electronic conversion kit such as powerspark or accuspark then it should be straight forward. The points are removed and the kit fitted. The green wire that ran from the coil to the condensor is removed. The red wire goes to coil + and the black wire to coil -.

check the magnetic pick up ring fitted on the dizzy shaft is secure, mine came loose and caused backfiring    just added a bit of glue.

If the kit had been wired up wrong i.e the wires on the wrong way then that can blow the sender.

Check distributor cap where the plug leads go in. On mine the terminals inside corrode and need cleaning up every so often, inc the plug lead ends

check for battery voltage to the ignition coil.

Check the resistance through the coil. How to Test an Ignition Coil

If all the above are good then it should run, if not then you may have a fault further down the line. check fuses and wiring connections.

Thats great, thanks for the reply, I used a company in Barking that advertise on Ebay and can say with honesty that they were fantastic to deal with,

I sent them my old dizzy that was leaking oil, they stripped it, replaced all bearings and seals (the bearing they use is a sealed unit much better than the original) and they returned it within 2 days like new because they also bead blast and paint the outer case, with new dizzy cap and rotor arm, all for about £60 inc postage.. I couldn't complain about that.

I gave it to the mechanic that had my car and he fitted it but he said he thought it was faulty so I bought another from a breaker locally, he said that didnt work and he thought it may be the carb (weber fitted) so I got him a complete weber rebuilt kit with all new seals etc, then he said he thought it was the manifold gasket so I got him one of them…. then he said he thought it was contaminated fuel and eventually he said he didn't know, get the picture? (he advertises as an old school VW Golf Specialist)

Eventually I went and towed it back last week as a non runner so thats where I'm at, trying to get it running me self just me and Haynes manual.

Frustrating because when I took it to him I drove it there (that was October and he's had it since then!)

Thanks for your help, any appreciated

Waterworx said

Thats great, thanks for the reply, I used a company in Barking that advertise on Ebay and can say with honesty that they were fantastic to deal with,

I sent them my old dizzy that was leaking oil, they stripped it, replaced all bearings and seals (the bearing they use is a sealed unit much better than the original) and they returned it within 2 days like new because they also bead blast and paint the outer case, with new dizzy cap and rotor arm, all for about £60 inc postage.. I couldn't complain about that.

I gave it to the mechanic that had my car and he fitted it but he said he thought it was faulty so I bought another from a breaker locally, he said that didnt work and he thought it may be the carb (weber fitted) so I got him a complete weber rebuilt kit with all new seals etc, then he said he thought it was the manifold gasket so I got him one of them…. then he said he thought it was contaminated fuel and eventually he said he didn't know, get the picture? (he advertises as an old school VW Golf Specialist)

Eventually I went and towed it back last week as a non runner so thats where I'm at, trying to get it running me self just me and Haynes manual.

Frustrating because when I took it to him I drove it there (that was October and he's had it since then!)

Thanks for your help, any appreciated

I don't get exactly what fault you are experiencing.

The engine needs 3 things to be in good order for it to run, they are:

Mechanical - All the mechanics of the engine, pistons move up and down, valves open and close in time with the crankshaft etc.
Fuel - Atomised fuel and air to be drawn into the combustion chamber.
Spark - Spark from the spark plug to ignite fuel air mixture.

Is it you are getting no spark from a plug lead? More info needed please!

You can test this buy removing all the plug leads (keeping the order that they are in), put a spare spark plug (or remove one) in the end of No.1 plug lead, sit the end of the spark plug against a good clean metal part of the engine i.e the cylinder head (you may need to support the spark plug using well insulated pair of pliers or a dry clean thick piece of rag), get an assistant to turn the key whilst you check for a spark across the spark plug electrodes. Do this for every lead.

If you have no spark at any of the spark plug leads then remove the king lead from the dizzy cap (the plug lead that goes from the coil to the center of the dizzy cap). Put a spare plug (or one removed) into the end of the king lead, touch the end of the plug against a suitable ground i.e cylinder head, get your assistant to turn the engine over whilst you look for a spark.

If you have no spark from any of the leads inc king lead then the king lead could be faulty, the coil maybe faulty, the points that control the coil maybe duff or an ignition feed problem.

If you have spark from the king lead but not the rest of the plug leads then the fault lies within the dizzy cap. Check all the terminals where the plug leads and king lead go into the cap for rust (remove one at a time to keep the order). Check the carbon brush on the inside in the center of the cap is good i.e not snapped, worn or dirty. Check the rotor arm is clean and not cracked. Check contacts inside dizzy cap, they can get burnt up so clean up carefully with a screwdriver.

Well I just checked my ignition coil against the drawing link you sent, I have 0.7ohms primary and 8.07K ohms secondary so does that mean my coilis shafted?

Those readings are fine, unable to find my mk1 haynes but going by the mk2 specs its good to go.