[T3] How's the trip going?

Keith Park topnotch at nycap.rr.com
Tue Jun 21 16:33:11 PDT 2022


Should be a short or a few K with a resistor rotor, sounds like it burned
open, Ive had this happen on the spark plug resistors several times.

Keith


Topnotch Restorations
topnotch at nycap.rr.com
http://www.topnotchresto.com
71 Squareback  “Hothe”
65 Notchback  “El Baja Rojo”
93 RX7  “Redstur”
13 Subaru Outback "Blendin"

-----Original Message-----
From: type3-vwtype3.org <type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org> On
Behalf Of john carartbyjohn.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2022 12:24 AM
To: type3 at vwtype3.org
Subject: Re: [T3] How's the trip going?

BTW, I also tried measuring the resistance between the center of the rotor
and the tab on the outside edge.... and get no reading no matter what scale
I use.

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________________________________
From: type3-vwtype3.org <type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org> on
behalf of john carartbyjohn.com <john at carartbyjohn.com>
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2022 8:36:36 PM
To: type3 at vwtype3.org <type3 at vwtype3.org>
Subject: Re: [T3] How's the trip going?

Thanks for the info tonight Jim. Still trying to track down a new rotor.

I pulled the old rotor.  Shouldn't there be continuity between the center
and the tab that swipes by the 4 plug wire locations in the cap?  I don't
get and reading there at all.

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________________________________
From: type3-vwtype3.org <type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org> on
behalf of Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org>
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2022 8:03:37 PM
To: type3 at vwtype3.org <type3 at vwtype3.org>
Subject: Re: [T3] How's the trip going?

John,

Nice to get that call from you tonight. I'm 99% sure that the rotor is the
problem.

My favorite tool for diagnosing HV spark problems is an inductive timing
light. The inductive pickup senses CURRENT, so, in this case, you'd see
current going into the distributor but not coming out.

Since that current is bound and determined to get to ground somehow, it has
managed to get there somewhere within the distributor. There are only 2 HV
insulators in the distributor: the cap and the rotor.

The cap is easy to inspect. Sparking to ground in the cap will either be via
a carbon track, which is easy to see, or by way of dew (yes, been burned by
that!) inside the cap.

The spark can also puncture right thru the rotor, to the grounded shaft.
This is made more likely by the OG sharp corners on top of the shaft. I file
a radius on these whenever I rebuild a dizzy. You won't be able to see the
puncture. It's completely invisible, but you can find it with a HV source
that sparks along the insulator surface. If there's a puncture, the spark
will go RIGHT THERE. If there's no puncture, the spark will flow evenly
along the whole surface.

I've encountered this twice. Once on a customer who was stranded somewhere.
Couldn't figure that out until I swapped him the rotor from my Square. I'll
tell you the rest of that story when we see you on Thursday.

It happened to me on my ugly/rusty '73 a few years ago. That car had become
hard to start and would sometimes have trouble pulling away from stoplights.
It was oddly intermittent. Unfortunately, it never happened when I was home,
near tools. That was an aftermarket rotor, now in the basement,marked bad.
Out of curiosity I took it to campus and ran one of those hand held Tesla
coils over it. The spark went right to a place where the corners on the top
of the shaft would have been.

Good luck on the rest of your journey. See you Thursday.

--
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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