My 65 Beetle Leela

if you put power directly to the coil and it still didn't fire, then your problem is either the coil, points, condensor, cap or rotor. where did you check for spark? i would check it from the coil wire. pull it out of the distributor cap, and see if it fires out of there. if it does, then your problem is either the cap, rotor, wires, or plugs. if it doesn't spark then its either that one center wire, the coil, points, or condensor.

Excellent advice, I checked at the points. Going to go home today and check the coil then go from there. Got a, replacement coil coming, should be there around 5..

It was the ignition coil, went ahead and replaced the ignition switch too. Next up, distributor...



Crappy cell pick...

you going to drive it to circle yer wagens

Oh god no, as of now it's about every 30 miles our less out requires maintenance.

86vwgti8v wrote:Oh god no, as of now it's about every 30 miles our less out requires maintenance.

Hang in there. I went throught the same thing when I got my bus back on the road. I forced myself to drive her every day for a month just so I could work out all the issues.

Coil number 2, burnt slap up and killed the battery....
Think I see the problem though, the wire going from coil to distributor had a slice in it about 1/16th of a inch from the distributor.
Maybe arcing and frying the coils? I cut the wire, spliced in a wire but had to do it inside the distributor since it was so short, jumped it off another car, drove good, fir about 4 miles and brought it home, want enough to charge the battery so ill charge it at work tomorrow

I haven't read the whole post, but thought I'd ask anyway: Have you checked to make sure you don't have power to the coil when the ignition is off? If you do and the points are in the closed position it will burn out the coil. Also, for the same reason, you're not leaving the ignition on without the engine running are you?

With my test light, the only time I get spark to the coil is when the ignition is on, my light burnt up on me yesterday but that will get replaced and I will check that again. I been trying to make a habit of disconnecting the ignition coil wire to the distributor cap if I'm working on it and need the switch on.
The coil seems to burn up after driving. I hasn't gone out to it and have it dead aster just sitting.

I was just told by a friend to use a ignition ballast resistor...I don't know squat about anything electrical, gonna try it though...

what coil are you running? are you still using points? a ballast resistor is designed to match ohm load(resistance) between coil and points/condenser. check your condenser and make sure it is mounted securely to the dist. check to make sure you have ONLY 12 volts at the coil when car is running, if you have too much voltage (regulator is bad or not wired properly) it will fry the coil! hope you can figure it out. just don't overthink it!!

Accidently posted twice...

Car is still 6v.
Its a stock coil, not sure which model number. Went and bought a new test light, it lit once and blew...I installed a ballast resistor and the car wouldn't start so I kind doubt that's the answer...
Car is running good, havnt went far though. Hoping maybe my issue was that skit in thee green wire running to the distributor.

Nice score on the tags.

bakertim2 wrote:Nice score on the tags.

Thank you!

So, today I messed with it some. and fried the 3rd coil
It does not have constant power when car is not running only when switch is in the "on" position

Here is what I noticed, Car will start an drive just fine. after it gets good and warm, turn the car off, coil did not feel hot. Let it sit for about 15 minutes and come back to it, Coil was hotter and I had no juice in the wire from the distributer....Needless to say, it would not start...


any advice????? Getting really frustrated with this.

coil might be grounded somehow.- I had this happen once- tightened the coil clamp too much causing the insides of the coil to make contact with the casing

Three times though?!?

Ok, just went out to mess with it.
Put the test light on the black wire, good,
Now the green had no fire, but I turned the motor by hand a few degrees and then checked, it had fire, so the coil is good, the car started

That led me to check one of the other coils, it checked out fine...

Diagnosis, depending on where the motor stopped determines if I get fire...Maybe...

Could the points be arcing out?

the condenser wire the green one will only have fire when the points break....just like when you spun the engine over

and the black wire...the positive side of the coil has power only when the key is on right?

Yes, the positive side only has power when the key is on, verified that today.
And it's normal for it to not have power when the points are in contact, is that what your saying?

I'm really starting to wonder what's going on. The second coil melted, that was clearly bad. But it wouldn't start earlier our the other day.

you are geting the right coil arnt you an the black wire will only have fire on it when the switch is on the green wire will flash the test light on an off as you spinthe motor but that does not make any sence the coil is geting hot turned off unless its still got some fire or grounding

Are there different 6v coils? The could didn't actually fry, I think they are just over heating.
As of now the distributor had been pulled and is awaiting a replacement since we can't seem to locate parts easily for the big cap...

bughaus.com has all the fat cap parts- shippings usually pretty quick if you cant find them locally

Dang, I am going to keep the big cap and maybe rebuild it for a under the seat spare.

Also the vacuum advance is not working.
Will that cause this issue or backfiring? (it backfires a good bit too)