the never ending project. 71 super build

Looking good!
Most likely the leaking manifolds caused the erratic idle.
Fingers crossed...

wiring is done. i hope. not overly confident with quarter inch connectors on 1 of those red wires, but JBugs did it in there instructional video converting a 67 to alternator so... and the connector i used showed it was good from 14 to 10 gauge so...
iv got everything overly secured. both crimped and soldered the quarter inch connectors to the red wires. shrink tubed the living shit out of everything and made double damn sure everything is tightly plugged in.
hooked up the battery and no magic smoke.
turned the key to the "on" position and no magic smoke.
the charge light comes on.
haven't cranked it yet.
ill button it up next weekend and then we'll find out if all this work was worth it. fingers crossed.

well it's all back together but won't start. it's not even trying to start. im thinking it's acting like it has no spark sense i can pump the gas and the carb shoots fuel. it cranks and both the oil and charge lights in the speedo go out so im guessing everything there is ok. idk, going to have to mess with it. it's possible the timing is just way off, i have messed with it sense it ran last. might mess with it a bit tomorrow morning, we'll see.

so the alternator may have taken a shit.
was playing with the distributor and now when i turn the key on the charge light doesn't come on in the speedo. oil lite does. i check the bulb and its good. used an "ohm guesser" to test cranking voltage of the alternator and it's showing a max of like .13something volts. so....
i don't want the alternator to be bad, so does anyone have any ideas? iv already checked wiring and the bulb. all i can think of is bad ground. not sure i fully trust the one under the backseat. but that damn light was working fine for over an hour today, i turned the ignition off, messed with the distributor and now the lights off. FML... and to add injury to insult i think i got a mosquito bite :roll:

Hmmmm... :?
Seems your yellow mate is playing tricks on you... :roll:
May be a regulator problem?
I'm no expert but its terminal 61 should be hot with the ignition on?
And then dead once the alternator start working.

the alternator is internally regulated, so there is no regulator under the backseat anymore. the red wires that went to the regulator under the backseat are all connected together in a plug and the green wire on the alternator is connected the blue wire under the backseat. i know one red wire is off the alternator, one is off the battery, the other to the starter. the green wire on the alternator plugs into the blue wire and the blue wire under the seat and goes all the way up front to the idiot light. then there's a brown ground wire. one end is on the alternator the other is screwed to the heater channel under the back seat.
i question the under the seat ground connection. but the light has been working. it worked last weekend when i was trying to get the engine to start. it worked before i messed with the distributor yesterday.

idk its a 51 amp alternator that i got off a used engine almost 20 years ago and it's been floating around in my garage sense. i was going to put a 75amp on it eventually. i just don't want to have to take everything back apart. i was really hoping this alternator would hold up until i put duel carbs on the engine. not dealing with the stock carb and manifold would have made the job so much easier.
So Cal Imports has an AC Industries brand 75 amp alternator for $165 so i guess ill be doing that swap sooner than i wanted to :roll: just not looking forward to taking apart what i just put back together.

iv heard that if the charge light doesn't work the engine won't start. anyone know if that's true?

edit: just cleaned the ground under the backseat and cleaned the ground screw on the alternator and now the charge light is back on. :?
so now im back to trying to figure out why it's acting like it has no spark.

ok, just did a test. put a spare sparkplug on the number 1 wire and grounded it against the decklid latch on the apron (a test iv done in the past) and iv got no spark. so something in the ignition system isn't working. idk if it's the coil, ignition module in the distributor, or what. coil has resistance, module has resistance. might have to make some notes and call CB next week.

Super_Randy wrote:

iv heard that if the charge light doesn't work the engine won't start. anyone know if that's true?

Never heard about that...
Would the engine die if you loose the belt then??
But I never messed around with alternators, so I'm clueless here.

Anyway, due to the solved ground problem it's clear now that the alternator works at least. :)

Regarding the ignition issue...
Is it a big hassle to try and test with the old "conventional" point driven distributor?

IDK, when it comes to AC VWs I look skeptically at these "modern technical achievements"
like alternators and breaker-less ignition systems. :roll:
But hey, I'm old... :lol:

if it threw a belt the light would come on. iv heard that even with a stock generator if the bulb burns out the car won't start. seems stupid and looking at the circuitry i don't understand how. not sure i believe it. but iv been told that by more than one person :?

i could throw my 009 with points back in it. it's just that single 13mm nut and the points wire. i might try it, but im going to try swapping the coil first. put the blue coil back in there with the Magnaspark
and see what happens. iv read multiple posts on thesamba about people having the ignition module in the Magnaspark die. going to have to swap things out part by part to isolate the problem.

Maddel wrote:

Super_Randy wrote:

iv heard that if the charge light doesn't work the engine won't start. anyone know if that's true?

Never heard about that...
Would the engine die if you loose the belt then??

Super_Randy wrote:

if it threw a belt the light would come on.

There you are! Old AND dumb!!! :lol:

Super_Randy wrote:

iv heard that even with a stock generator if the bulb burns out the car won't start. seems stupid and looking at the circuitry i don't understand how. not sure i believe it. but iv been told that by more than one person :?

I'll try to start the Bug with that bulb removed next weekend.

Regarding the (already solved) ground issue...
Did you check the transmission to chassis ground strap too?

not old and dumb. just middle aged and senile :P if the belt came off the light would come one, meaning the light and everything else works. the circuit is complete and functional. if the light doesn't work, ie. the bulb burned out or the wire came off/got broken the circuit wouldn't be complete and from i was told by more than one person, the car wouldn't start. seems dumb and i don't see how it's possible.
iv been told the same thing about the oil light. again, seems dumb and idk how that would cause an issue, but iv never tried it.
you try it this weekend and prove about 3 people 20 years go wrong.

i haven't check the trans ground. i know it's in there and connected. but no idea how grounded it actually is. when i took the tans out to replace the mounts 20 years ago i cleaned it up and reinstalled it. can't be any worse than it was when i swapped the mounts.

Regarding the gen & oil lights...
Felt silly while testing but the car starts with either or both of the bulbs pulled.
The idiot light test! :lol:

that's what i figured. idk why 3 different people at 3 different times told me it wouldn't. just looking at the wiring schematic it didn't make sense.
but you tested it now and we know for certain.

Super_Randy wrote:

that's what i figured. idk why 3 different people at 3 different times told me it wouldn't. just looking at the wiring schematic it didn't make sense.
but you tested it now and we know for certain.

I bet it's because some manufacturer's wired vehicles to have that odd trait, just wasn't VW. I took the gauge cluster out of my Bronco and was driving it around for a while and it died. I checked and it wasn't charging the battery. When I plugged the gauge cluster back in, it started charging. I pulled the bulb on the amp light and it quit charging again. So if that bulb went bad, your Bronco wouldn't charge but since the bulb was bad, you wouldn't know it.

sounds logical :roll:

stuck the 009 with points back in, and thanks to hooking the black wire from the fusebox up to the wrong side of the coil i smoked'em :roll: idk how i managed to screw that up. after correcting that little issue i threw the Pertronix in there. im assuming it works. still doesn't seem to have spark. it's almost like the coil's not getting power :?
but iv cranked it so much now that the battery is starting to die. so ill throw that on the charger tomorrow.
im now thinking there's nothing wrong with the Magnaspart and the issue is something else.

alright iv done some trouble shooting. iv got 12.7 volts at the power wire that goes to the coil. so the coils got power. based on the resistances im seeing in the coil i believe both coils iv tried are good and fully functional.
however, the spark plugs don't spark. so... im ether dealing with a non functional Pertronix in my 009 and a non functioning ignition module in the Magnaspark, or im going crazy. or there's something else wrong i haven't thought of yet. anyone got any ideas?

also my damn charge light is just out now. it never came on today no matter what i tried. and my gas gauge is reading over full when the tanks only got maybe 8 gallons in it. so there's that as well.

Coil plug wire, cap center button, rotor? That's what I can think of causing no spark at any plug when you've got a functional coil.

that's just a list of parts between the coil and plugs :lol:
it hit me last night that i should have stuck a screwdriver in the coil wire and checked to see if spark jumped from the screwdriver to ground. so iv got that test to do. double check the coil.

Super_Randy wrote:

that's just a list of parts between the coil and plugs :lol:
it hit me last night that i should have stuck a screwdriver in the coil wire and checked to see if spark jumped from the screwdriver to ground. so iv got that test to do. double check the coil.

^ ^ ^ This!
If the coil is good and there's still no spark at any plug (or plug wire end) check the distributor cap to rotor connection.
Has the magna spark distributor cap center this little "carbon brush" thingy too?
May be it fell out??
Is the rotor in place??? :shock: :D

Super_Randy wrote:

that's just a list of parts between the coil and plugs :lol:
it hit me last night that i should have stuck a screwdriver in the coil wire and checked to see if spark jumped from the screwdriver to ground. so iv got that test to do. double check the coil.

Yes, that's sort of the only method of narrowing down "It works here but not over here".

Maddel wrote:

Super_Randy wrote:

that's just a list of parts between the coil and plugs :lol:
it hit me last night that i should have stuck a screwdriver in the coil wire and checked to see if spark jumped from the screwdriver to ground. so iv got that test to do. double check the coil.

^ ^ ^ This!
If the coil is good and there's still no spark at any plug (or plug wire end) check the distributor cap to rotor connection.
Has the magna spark distributor cap center this little "carbon brush" thingy too?
May be it fell out??
Is the rotor in place??? :shock: :D

yes the rotors in place. im not making that mistake a 4th time :lol: ...ok, i probably will at some point :roll:

cap and rotor should be fine, i hadn't messed with anything when it stopped working (it stopped working before i swapped over to the alternator) i hadn't fired it up in a while so i went out to let it run poorly for a few minutes and it wouldn't start. pulled the plugs and fount they were fouled. swapped those and it still didn't work. that's when i started messing around and found out it had no spark.
it's been my experience that caps and rotors don't go bad from siting for a few weeks.

schwim wrote:

Super_Randy wrote:

that's just a list of parts between the coil and plugs :lol:
it hit me last night that i should have stuck a screwdriver in the coil wire and checked to see if spark jumped from the screwdriver to ground. so iv got that test to do. double check the coil.

Yes, that's sort of the only method of narrowing down "It works here but not over here".

i wanted you to tell me exactly which one of those parts was bad so i can replace it and have it work. or give the recipe for some magic voodoo powder, duh :lol:
:P

alright, i bought a new ignition module. it came today, i installed it in the distributor. after screwing around with a multimeter im not 100% convinced it was the problem. but it's something new and that will help narrow things down.

Super_Randy wrote:

after screwing around with a multimeter im not 100% convinced it was the problem. but it's something new and that will help narrow things down.

Is it continuing to behave the same way?