Two coils in three days!

Tried to start the car to nip to the shop the night before last. Car started fine, albeit rough due to icy weather. After running for almost a minute the car died and would not start again. Basic diagnosis led to a lack of spark nothing from the coil. Luckily I had a spare old coil in the boot which cured the issue.

Yesterday morning the car started and drove like a champ; got me to work and back fine.

This morning the car did exactly the same as before; started then died. No spark again.


The coil is dead but I'm not putting another one on until I've worked out why the car has developed a taste for them. Never had a problem with this before and the whole ignition system was replaced around september time.

Any ideas would be very welcome!

Cheers.

Ive now found that the coil i was using needed a ballast resistor. Im still getting 12V on ignition so this must be an issue.

Im not sure if the Mk1 had a ballast wire, and if so was it to the fuse box or straight to the starter?

Sorry if any confusion the car is a 1983 Mk1 Jetta 1.3

Basically I am not sure if I need a 12V coil or the same again and sort out ballast issue.

Cheers.

Ballast wire had come loose on the connector. All soldered up now, getting 9V on ignition on, and 12V on cranking. All good.

Put a new coil on after checking all was ok and now no spark at all again. Very strange, as although the coil was getting fried by a constant 12V it did work before.

Anyway, any ideas would be cracking as usual.

Cheers.

How have you got on with this? I won't pretend to have any solid ideas but it makes me sad that this has no replies.  

Haha! Makes me sad too!

Anyway….problem mostly solved. I rewired the ballast wire to the fusebox and now have a solid spark with 12V on cranking and 9V when running.
Also the pigtail on the points was a little bent and kept shorting out on the inside of the distributor.
Adding to the issues the idle cut off valve was not getting 12V, another wiring fault in the fusebox!

With the above sorted I drove a 2 hour trip to pick up some new wheels yesterday. Drove like a champ there but the same cannot be said for the way back!  

Was dying a bit on full throttle but if eased on it got better and would be fine.
Makes me want to look at the carb but as its a new weber Im erring towards ignition.
Took it for a drive today and the same again. Fine in first and second but if ragged in third and fourth it will bog and backfire from the carb.

Any help on this new issue would be amazing as I have an interview at Red Bull tomorrow and would ideally like to get there!!

Cheers.

Yeah I think I'd err towards ignition too, especially since it's caused recent issues. Vacuum advance first, then timing and finally the condensor, because this is usually the source of my running problems. And from what I understand (very little) a faulty one might explain a misfire at high engine speeds.

That's all I got I;m afraid, my knowledge is basically 'test everything until the bloody thing works'…. good luck!  

Just to update this. All sorted now and made it to the interview just about. Broke down 5 time on the way back though!

Found numerous faults in the ingnition set up even after the ballast was sorted. Vac advance wasnt brilliant, oil was leaking into the dizzy and there seemed to be issues in the dizzy itself as new points weren't helping.

Found a bosch dizzy on ebay for a couple of squid. Whacked it on and she went like she had never gone before! Bearing in mind the dizzy seemed to have knackered points and had been sat in a garage for a long time.

I then got a accuspark kit, put a new coil and leads on ans she has been perfect ever since.
Have to reccomend the accuspark kit to anyone with a carb model with the traditional points. Made a world of difference and nice to know I never have to look at the points again. (I do keep points in the glovebox just in case mind!)

Cheers for the help.

How much did you pay for your accuspark and where from?
Cheers

I bought one of their coils the other day, found the ignition module for £32.50 from accuspark themself
http://www.accuspark.co.uk/car_search.html
Not bad considering the price of other units, they are meant to be pretty good too.
Pretty sure they have an ebay store too.

Sweet just bought one, not really had any problems in that area but seems like a good move getting one! Just need to sort out stupid radiator problems now haha

Completely forgot about this forum. Swapped my Jetta for an E21 now but good to be back on here.

Anyway….accuspark!

Nice one You wont regret it! Makes a world of difference. Got mine off there eBay store. Only issue is needing a bosch dizzy which can be a pain to find.

Good luck with sorting the rad issues!

Cheers.

Well not really issues just been sent the wrong part haha. So the accuspark won't work with standard dizzy need to upgrade to a Bosch one?

I think they used both decullier and Bosch dizzys as standard. Check which one you have. I found I had to swap for a Bosch one in order to get the kit to for but see how you get on. 
I think they use the Bosch dizzy on polos and other engines so you might be lucky and find one if you have a decullier one. 

Hope you don't have too much of a faff to fit it as its such a good and easy mod. 

Cheers.