Re-read my post, I added some stuff on the carbs. if you have the occasional fire you are in good shape. I did the timing chain on the car recently. had to pull the distributor. Easy to get the chain lined up but the distributor was tricky--easy to get it a tooth or two off. it installs with a twisting motion so it can look good on the rotor yet be off. Electronic ignition and I couldn't get enough cranking speed to get much from the timing light. So it was a matter of just dicking with it. Once I got it to hit a time or two I knew I was going in the right direction. Kept skipping a tooth and re-aligning my diss-assembly marks until it fired. Then just timed it w/ the light.ChuckyShamrok wrote:Will occasionally fire, but doesn't run on the sprayPITAPan wrote:The chokes on the carbs may not be overly functional. Diagnose with starter fluid. If it runs on the spray but not on the carbs, you got a fuel problem, right?
Set to the middle mark. Confirm w/ Snowbums page, my memory is poor. You do not speak of when the points "begin" to open. It's black and white on that, open or not open. You determine this with your test light or meter. But the point gap is critical. it determines how long the points are open (the time for the coil to charge up, the dwell). But it also affects the timing---where you rotate the whole points plate. With it running you put a dwell meter on it and read the points gap (old time tool, can get cheap. I use a Fluke 88 and it does it all but I still have my tach/dwell meter from back in the day. Look ma, no batteries). Without it running you use a feeler gauge. Some people make a nifty tubular setting tool. Know little about them. Then you clean the crap out of the point faces with alcohol.ChuckyShamrok wrote:So set the points to begin opening on S. The S mark on my Flywheel looks like "| IsI" Do I set it the line above the S to the mark on the case?PITAPan wrote:yes, you want to time dead on the S mark. But the points gap has to be pretty on or it throws you off---and the dwell won't be right. And you gotta clean them or the new ones burn on you... Read the book. You want to know WHEN the points open. Should be on S set static. if you just check that they are open on S but don't notice WHEN they open, that could be on L, M, N,or Q. No good.
if the sparks are limp 'n' yellow. You can bench test the coils. They are 6VDC wired in series so you need the two wired together. Give them power (12VDC off a battery) for about a second and then break the power. Should get a fat blue spark to a grounded (to the coil-) plug. If not, replace. Don't screw around. AB suggestion of Bosch blue coils (beware counterfeits) is a good one. Or anything else solid. lot of ways to play it BUT no super hot coils. The points won't take the draw. You can even use a Single 12VDC dual nose Harley coil or similar. But the Bosch Blues fit the brackets and location you got. A single Dyna 12VDC coil on the Dyna bracket will also fit. Consult Rick at Mottorad Electrik while you are buying his book. Good guy.
Edit: The condenser (a capacitor) forms a resonant circuit with the coils. This is not in the VW book. So a bad condenser will hurt your sparks. But you should still get some decent action on the bench. The best test is in the bike simply opening the points by hand with the popsicle stick, ignition on and starting with them closed. This has all the parts in play. You will need new points and condenser eventually, so you are correct to get some and get them in. Be very careful with the nut on the cam tip. break the cam tip by over tightening and you will be hatin' life.
leave power running to a coil and you can overheat and damage it. Always kill ignition when bike not running. The later electronic ignitions kill coil power after X seconds automatically.
If you fly that way, stay that way. You just never want to double up a resistor plug on a resistor cap. No huge damage on a points setup, but not the best sparks either.ChuckyShamrok wrote:Plug cables have 5K ohms, plugs are non resistor.PITAPan wrote:You want 5k ohm resistance in the spark plug secondary circuits. Resistor plugs and non-resistor cables or vice versa. Never both,. Never carbon core cables, only copper core. It will start and run with no resistance although the sparks are shorter duration.
That starter relay may be special or not, depends on the handle bar controls. But you are getting the starter to work and you got sparks so it can be left for another day.ChuckyShamrok wrote:Yup, alot of the heads are messed up, mismatched with other style bolts in the same place and I've found some weird wiring in the bike; a random push button going to the starter relay, I'm thinking he may of ghetto rigged a kill switch onto the bike.PITAPan wrote:I pay attention to the heads on fasteners and look for poorly patched in elec accessory circuits. Both say the PO was a hack.
The cold will really work against you. Dunno why you replaced the rings, much less put them in upside down, but they aren't broken in and seated. You really want to get max cranking speed to get compression. So the battery comes in at night to stay warm. Work off a car battery if you can, again keep it warm. Park a heater under the block and tent the bike if possible--more comfy to work in a small 60F space than a big 30F one. You might clean the drain plug like you are doing surgery, drain and save the oil and throw some uber cheap 10-30 in it. Won't hold pressure long with it stationary and heating up quick, even with the door open, put it might get you off the ground and it's good for flushing the motor. Save it for your mower later and put your better break in oil back in.ChuckyShamrok wrote:Thanks for the help, I'll bounce down to the barn tomorrow and freeze my butt of and get some work done. It's funny. I helped swap a LS1 out of a 98 Camaro and put it in a 86 Trans Am, no problems, but something which should be simpler, with less electrics and no computers, is being more difficult for me.
If you don't know the ignition or fueling systems, why should you find it easy? Don't compare to things you already know how to do. That will slow you down and put your head in the wrong place. What counts is your ability to learn and pick up new concepts---even if it is old time stuff. A newborn human infant has a simian clutching reflex. They will grab anything you put in their hand. So waving the highly desirable (you do have the factory toolkit, right?)Heyco 10-12mm ring spanner around in the delivery room means nada. You still had to learn everything. So now you learn some more. Knowing how to learn new stuff helps a lot. Hint; take a lot of notes, esp. when going through convoluted material (Snowbum)
Do not fall into the trap of saying to yourself, "hey, I'm a professional mechanic, I should be able to do blah, blah, blah.". Bullshit. There is ALWAYS something you don't know. Work on small engines much? What you do have is a lot of knowledge of different things, not to mention knowing how to hold a wrench. Bits and pieces of that blend with the new information and you are much more able much more quickly than the total newbie. But humble your self a bit. They day you don't learn something new is the day you die. I'm always mildly amused when I learn some new trick and have to admit the way I've been doing it for 20 years was the hard way or the long way or the slow way. Humbling to say the least.
While on the subject, it's "cigarettes" . The base word is "cigar" with the "ette" part added to mean "little". I can't spell for beans but just to keep my learning tuned up, I try to get a new word right every so often. Took about 3 months to get "reservoir" down.
