Hi, I've searched the discussions for VW and for autos in general with no luck. Vehicle is a '90 Golf 8 valve gas engine. When doing a visual inspection of the inside of the distributor cap and rotor, one of the spring clips that holds the distributor cap on broke off. It was pretty corroded to begin with. I found a replacement clip at the junk yard. I used a screw driver and small hammer to tap the remains of the old spring clip out of the groove that runs around the body of the distributor. I tapped in the replacement clip.
I had turned the engine by hand before hand to point the rotor to the mark on the distributor body. So when replacing, I llined up the rotor to the mark and dropped the distirbutor into the engine. After putting the cap back on (no wires removed), I tried starting. No firing. So I went back to basics, hand cranked the engine until cylinder #1 was at its highest point, checked the timing mark was at TDC, and that the rotor was pointing to the mark on the distributor body. All is well. But the engine still won't start.
Other things I checked.
- yes, the rotor is in the distributor and seated on the key
- timing light while I cranked. No flashing
- pulled #1 spark plug out, touched the threads to ground and had someone crank the engine. No indication ofspark.
- timing light on the wire from the ignition coil. No indication of spark.
- made sure the connector on the side of the distirbutor was seated properly
- Rotated the distributor to various positions and re-tried starting
Could I have damaged something inside tapping on the distributor body? The tapping would be like the force to drive in a small finishing nail (that's the hammer I used, smaller than a finishing nail hammer).
What am I overlooking? Shoud the engine fire, even roughly, if I'm way off the timing?
And just before a long weekend drive too! Thanks.