Need help with the cabby.

[CGDoig]

It's been a long while since I've asked for help. But I have some questions and hope some of the experts can help. The car runs like ish. Has since I bought it. Its hard to start, once its started it seems like it wants to stall at lower RPM's but runs pretty well at the higher ones. Tonight I decided to head out and start the long road of trying to figure it out. Well it took a terrible turn. I started checking for vacuum leaks right away. Seems like it's leaking a little at the intake manifold, no biggie. I don't think its enough to cause the major issue.

I then turned to the cap and rotor to see if it was correct. The wires were not in the right order according to bentley. So I re routed them to what is the right way. Now the car won't even fire. It just back fires. How the hell am I supposed to figure out which way they were before? Also would this have anything to do with timing? I believe the engine in the car is from an 84 and is JH code. Thanks in advance. I'd like to figure out if the problems are mechanical before I tear into the dash and electrical.

[RobG]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

What year 1984? CIS injection? Good fuel? Do you have a timing light? How is the timing belt? Is the distributed clocked correctly?

[CGDoig]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

Rob, I've been reading a bit more since posting and it seems I'll need to acquire a timing light and multimeter to do this properly. It is an 84, CIS yes, good fuel for sure. Timing belt looks good still. I think PO did it not long before I bought it. But that may be where problems lie.

[CGDoig]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

Alright this morning I hopped up and got in the garage right away. I popped the rotor out. Made sure everything was set up to TDC. Reinstalled the rotor made sure it was lined up to the notch properly. Wires to proper spots. The car turns over without back firing now so that's a good sign. But it won't catch. Cranks fine for the most part, occasional stoppage. Any suggestions?

[RobG]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

So no ignition? You say the rotor is lined up with the notch, the notch on the distributor shaft or the mark on the distributor base?

[RobG]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

check these marks:

http://www.volkswagenforum.co.uk/f18...l-8v-4169.html

[CGDoig]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

All marks line up properly as they should. The only one that was out before my initial inspection was the rotor. Which is now where it should be according to that post. The mark on the base. I have spark as well. I'm going to pull the spark plugs and check for flooding but that should be cleared up by now.

[RobG]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

And you have confirmed it's not 360 degrees out? It's pretty unlikely if it was running before.

I''m not too familiar with the CIS injection, is there any timing required there? Fuel supply is good? Transfer pump in the tank is working or is it a mechanical pump?

this info looked pretty solid:
http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti..._Injection.htm

[CGDoig]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

Success! Wow. I traced all of the wiring back. Tore the dash apart, will need to anyways for next projects. After all of it I finally looked at the cap again. Move all the wires ahead one space so the #1 it at the grove (which I'm.assuming was the issue anyways) and voila! Thanks Rob. Hopefully I can get to the root of these gremlins now. I know it runs soundly at least.

[RobG]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

Good to hear you got it running!

[Satnam]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

180?
(doesn't matter now that it's running)

And you have confirmed it's not 360 degrees out? It's pretty unlikely if it was running before.

I''m not too familiar with the CIS injection, is there any timing required there? Fuel supply is good? Transfer pump in the tank is working or is it a mechanical pump?

this info looked pretty solid:
http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti..._Injection.htm

[RobG]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

360 on the Crank

[CGDoig]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

I have electrical gremlins somewhere now. I can trickle charge the battery and its good for a couple days then dead again. Not sure where to start. Checked all my grounds. Reattached disconnected ones. Still draining. Kind of car you just want to start from scratch with.

[MechEngg]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

Measure the current draw through each of your fused circuits with the car not started?

[RobG]

Re: Need help with the cabby.

Turn the car off, hook up an amp meter to the battery and put it on the 10A setting, go through the fuse block and and pull them out one by one to see what the largest drain is.