Well I guess I know what I'll be doing with my GTI next week when I'm back in Ireland - my new Bosch distributor is getting installed. You're doing well and getting there @saladman, hall senders and seals will sort you out I'm sure
Cheers @costel1969 - are you also suffering from misfiring / lumpy running? In my haste to disassemble the dizzy I forgot to mark which way around the cam drive wheel goes with the rotor arm notch. Dangit. At least it's a 50/50 chance...
spin the engine so camshaft is lined up to TDC then you can use the camshaft drive slot as a reference
@rubjonny that sounded like too much hard work so I opted for the 50:50 gamble Got the new seal today, rebuilt the dizzy, installed and on first try engine wouldn't start. Looks like I lost the 50:50 chance so I pulled the dizzy out again and rotated crank drive wheel 180 degs. After this the engine would fire but still horribly lumpy and wouldn't idle. I marked location of dizzy so pretty sure it's not a timing thing. With ignition left on I waggled the hall sensor housing where the 3-wire connector plugs in and again managed to get the metering head to buzz which makes me think that the hall effect sensor is broken somehow. I've looked at the 3 pin connector (socket) and can't see anything wrong with it. In a rare moment of clarity I remembered I have an 8v engine from a B3 passat in the hoard stores and thought I'd check the dizzy to see if there's any interchangeable parts. It's a genuine Bosch one and looks like the hall effect sensor might be usable but ... The sensor assembly looks slightly different - see comparison in images below. My current (probably broken) one only has parts on one side - whereas the Bosch one has a sensor on the opposite side to the connector. Anybody know what the difference is, apart from sensor location? I couldn't for the life of me get the dowel pin out of the bosch dizzy to remove the drive shaft and get at the sensor. No matter of swearing at it helped either. Current on the left, Bosch on the right. So @Peter Sears I'll pm you my addy and take you up on the kind offer of your hall effect sensor please! After that I'll be admitting defeat and buying a new or recon dizzy unless anybody has one they'd be willing to sell?
I've seen both styles of sensor in bosch dizzy 8v and 16v, apart from the obvious the sensor is on the opposite side but it doesnt matter on a 4 trigger window type anyway. since the 16v one isnt bosch good chance it wont fit but worth a try depends if they designed their casting around bosch parts (clearly they didnt copy the seal sizes for a start) for the 8v dizzy you're supposed to remove the cirlip above the trigger window then carefully lever it up the shaft, though theres a chance you can bend it doing that. can also hammer/drill out the pin at the bottom and attack it that way
oh and I forgot to say if you get the drive thingy on wrong its no biggy either rotate dizzy 180 degrees so rotor arm is pointing where lead #1 is or move all the leads round so #1 is where rotor arm points when engine is tdc
I only read you message this afternoon but sent you a reply saying I would post on monday, the good thing is that the Hall Sender I have is the type shown on your left picture (Non Genuine Bosch) so it should be s direct replacement
I did consider moving the HT leads round but tbh removing + sorting the dizzy was easy enough - the dowel pin almost falls out - completely different to the one in the 8v Bosch dizzy. I'm hesitant to risk damaging the trigger wheel if possible but I need to get a better punch and maybe apply some heat to get the OEM dowel pin out. Trying to hold/mount the unit without damaging it is awkward too. But I would be keen to see if the Bosch sensor unit fits in the current aftermarket dizzy. It seems like a much better design with the sensor further away from the connector. I reckon the main cause of the problem is the position of the sensor from the trigger wheel. The current hall sensor unit fit with dizzy housing is loose and wiggle-albe. Thanks Peter - will be good to see how well it fits compared to the current sensor
ah ok fine, the bosch 16v dizzy I had was a right pain the pin is well in there and its awkward as hell to support it while you try to bash the pin out as you say
Thanks to @Peter Sears and @Retro_J I am now armed with more distributors and parts than I know what to do with - cheers both for helping out. So far I have tried: replacing the HE sensor in my original dizzy swapping dizzy for another non-Bosch one trying a Bosch one. Three different dizzies essentially. With all of the above, I have managed to get the engine to fire and sometimes keep running with blips of the throttle, but always lumpy and never idles. I had marked my original dizzy for timing / re-positioning purposes and re-fit that and the other non-Bosch one accordingly. I am leaving the two bolts that hold dizzy in place loose enough that I can turn it by hand with a little effort. Method: Try to start car Turn off ignition Move dizzy a few degs Try again Repeat More often than not the engine won't start. I pulled the plugs and all wet - am I 'flooding' the engine and would this cause it to not fire? I'm also conscious that I could be washing the bores with fuel but it is what it is. Outer pins of the connector to dizzy have about 11v across them. I tried measuring coil feed by probing w/multimeter and turning the dizzy with ignition on - when I hear a buzz from the metering head I can see a blip of 4v ish but I think that's just because the meter can't keep up with the quick change. From my classic mini days I have vague memories of coils burning out if ignition left on so I'm only leaving it on for a short time while testing. How sensitive is the engine to dizzy position? I was expecting to be able to get it to idle long enough to jump out and adjust dizzy until it smooths out - but that seems impossible without an assistant. I was convinced that the dizzy was the issue but now I'm not so sure Any other things to try / check? Cheers
as long as the dizzy is close to tdc that will be enough, so turn engine to tdc. line the rotor arm up to the notch in the dizzy housing, put plug lead #1 where its pointing, firing order 1342 anti-clockwise. it'll start, run and warm up then you fine tune to 6-8deg BTDC with timing light
Will have a go at this cheers Jonny - however... Had a mate round today who reckons it's not getting enough fuel so going to replace the under car filter first and see if that makes any difference
Managed to get the old fuel filter with car on jack stands either side on the rear subframe. I used a big adjusty on the filter and 17 + 19mm spanners to undo the banjo bolts. Despite caution I still got soaked in petrol! Before this I disconnected the two fuel lines from the tank cap in boot - to avoid leaking fuel due to capillary action (maybe?) For reference I took a photo of the filter before removing. This helped when installing the new filter - at first I had it the wrong way round and the bolts wouldn't fit the threads in the new filter. The new filter came with a pair of new copper washers for the smaller banjo connector but not the larger one. I decided to re-use the old washers for now to get the filter in. I'm still not convinced that the filter is the problem so I had another look at the dizzy. This wire in the dizzy connector looks iffy but there's plenty of copper there. I wrapped with electrical tape. Can't start the car until tomorrow - baby is asleep. Since becoming a dad car projects take a lot longer
Yeah if you hadn't taken the lifter lines off it'll keep dropping fuel till the tank is drained. Figured that one out the hard way. dizzy wire isn't ideal but probably won't be causing your issue as copper looks intact
Cheers @rubjonny - I tried this today but couldn't get to turn over. In certain dizzy positions felt like engine was fighting against itself instead of turning over. Have put battery on charge and will try again - not sure if that's cause of above but it's been cranked a lot over past week without any alternator juice. I also measured resistance of all HT leads: C - 3k 1 - 6.8k 2 - 6.3k 3 - 5.3k 4 - 4.9k At first I thought values are all too high but does follow the trend of: shorter lead = less resistance The leads don't look bad but I don't know when they were fitted. Going to check the fuel filter in metering head next.
Tried starting the car today. Got it to start and run for a few seconds and then... tried again and starter wouldn't turn. Noticed the chunky feed from battery to starter was pretty corroded / grotty at either connector end so removed + cleaned. Smaller connectors were also pretty bad - applied penetrating oil and some gentle leverage and finally got the connectors off. After refitting terminals still had no life from the starter and noticed the large positive terminal getting pretty hot. Is there a chance I've smoked the starter motor from cranking / especially if dizzy timing is wildly out? Or am I just lucky enough to be discovering more gremlins as I continue to dig? I removed the starter motor (wasn't expecting it to be part of front engine mount, ha) and noticed quite a lot of play / side-to-side wigglability in the drive spindle - not sure if this is normal. Is it worth testing motor on the bench (and if so, how)? or should I find another unit? I'd rather not smoke another motor if I can avoid it...
to bench test give it a chunky live on the main stud, jump spade with 12v and it should spin. it can kick pretty hard so I suggest you clamp it in a vice or hold it down first
I won't ask how you found out that the motor can kick if not held in place I secured the motor in a vice and used a battery / jump leads: gnd cable clamped to the motor body and touched the positive to the chunky stud in the middle - I read in an old thread this bypasses the relay? Got the motor to spin but only slowly and it seemed very reluctant/stiff and warmed up a bit. Symptoms of a poorly motor? Think I've got a motor I can grab off a parts 8v digi - not sure if it has the same power rating but the mounts look the same. Inclement weather has put a hold on any proper work for now
