Hi everyone
I drove my beetle yesterday (68 1600 with pertronix electronic ignition) and then when I came back about 6 hours later, it wouldn't start. No spark at all. I poured some fuel in to the carby in case it was not getting fuel and still nothing.

Any suggestions for me to try?

Yogie

check the fuse and wiring

Do you have a multimeter?
Are you getting power to the coil?

How do you know you are not getting spark?
How did you test it?

Is the carbon button bit in the cap shagged?

I am guessing no spark as the engine turns over but does not try to kick at all. I wasn't sure if it was because of a lack of fuel or something else so I put fuel directly in to the carb and it still just turned over with no sign of spark/kicking at all.

I do have a multi meter but not sure what to look for when checking the coil.

Yogie

2 wires on coil
One is permanently 12v when ignition on
Other one goes to condenser
Check to see if the 12 v is there

Get some one to help you kick it over and with a plug lead pulled at the dist cap (hold carefully with insulated pliers) go to put lead back in the cap while mate is turning over
If you have spark you will see it

Thanks Bizarre. I will give that a try.

Yogie

Hi
Using a multimeter the Ohms measurement between both screw terminals on the coil [with all leads to coil disconnected] the measurement should be approx. 3 to 5 ohms..
Something else to measure is the rotor button in the distributor..
From center to end... it should be the same as touching the ends of the meter leads together, or if it is a genuine VW Bosch rotor button it will show some resistance in Ohms as they do have a resistor in the rotor arm between the end and the center. I have heard of this resistor burning out, leaving an open circuit.. and no spark..... The other culprit that can stop ALL spark is the condenser....

It pays to renew the distributor cap, rotor and points and condenser and keep the old ones [if they were OK] in the car for spares.
Another one to look for if all the about test out OK, is the hi voltage cable from the coil to the distributor. If this has wire thru the center of it, then it will be OK, if it has something else thru the center of it, it can be burnt out... You can test it with Your multimeter...

Best of Luck

LEE

Problem solved. vw54 was right. I had checked the fuses and they looked fine. Put the multimeter on the coil and 1.2v only. Thought it may be the immobiliser but that was working properly.

Checked the fuses again and the coil fuse had 11.8v on one side of the terminal and 1.2v on the other. Cleaned the terminal and all is good.

Thanks everyone.

Yogie

Good result Yogie...

All copper and brass electrical nuts terminals fusebox fuse terminals all get contaminated over the years and even though they may be connected...
there maybe NO actual connection or high resistance there.
it doesn't happen overnight but it does happen

LEE

multi meters have their uses but for a problem like this where you need to load the circuit a dirty old test light is the best thing to use, getting a 1.2 volt reading on one side of the fuse confirms this