Coil question - Can I . . .

Post by **Therunner** » 05 Feb 2008, 06:39

. . . . use the Coil off Kate's 1300 bug on our 1600 bus? Is the coil basically the same, or at least similar enough for a quick check?

Got no spark to plugs and just want to check if we need a new coil before we start looking at the distributor.

It's an 80/81 1.6 Aircooled.

Cheers

Melvin

Post by **toomanytoys** » 05 Feb 2008, 08:15

For a quick check yes, but dont drive it.. the coils are very different really and the electronic ignition wont really like it..

Post by **Therunner** » 05 Feb 2008, 08:27

Cool, thanks for the reply.

Just want to check it quickly, if it works the bus'll get it's very own brand new Coil.

Out of interest, can I change the electronic ignition to a points and condenser set up? Or would that be really silly?

Thanks again

Melvin

Post by **Mocki** » 05 Feb 2008, 09:01

that would be REALLY silly, and a hudge backward step, imo

Post by **toomanytoys** » 05 Feb 2008, 09:02

Yes you can, but why?..... real backwards step.. but if you have a points dizzy and coil available and dont want to buy a new hall sensor (brickworks did have them available)

just remember you cant use a 2L dizzy on there, but you can use a DG/DF (1.9) dizzy.. and dont bother with an 009... waste of money...

Whats the fault in any case? more often than not its the ignition amplifier not the coil thats gone.. and then could be hall sensor.. try the coil on the beetle first..

Post by **Therunner** » 05 Feb 2008, 09:20

Just because they're simple and I can see and understand how they work, I like things that I can understand

If the electronic set up works I'd most likely leave it alone, if that's the way it was designed I probably shouldn't mess with it!

We've bought the bus reasonably cheaply cos it's not running at present. The engine turns over but doesn't start. There's current getting to the coil, but no spark at the plugs, I'm looking at the coil first cos it's fairly cheap and I have a working one - on Kate's bug - that I can check it with!

Is the electronicky thing in the distributor easy to replace? Is that what you mean by 'hall sensor'? If the coil isn't faulty is that the next obvious part to replace? My logic tells me it is, but I could so easily be wrong!

Thanks again again

Melvin

Post by **Therunner** » 05 Feb 2008, 16:30

Well, it seems that the coil is probably ok; Got a spark from the ht lead so I tried one of the plugs again and have occasional spark from there.
It was quite erratic tho, I was expecting something more regular? Also when it did spark, it seemed 'weak' at least compared to the spark coming directly from the coil!

Is this info enough for someone to say 'yes you need a new electonicky bit for your dizzy', or are there other bit's I should be checking out first?

I should add that the dizzy cap is maybe 6 months old and the leads are only days old (except for the lead to no. 1, which broke so I had to put the old one back on )

Thanks again

Melvin