1. Home
  2. Volkswagen, everything else
  3. 90 golf won't start, help
  4. Page 2

90 golf won't start, help

black spark plug electrodes sometimes means that the engine is running too rich. What does the oil smell like? I would guess that you might have a ground problem with that Digifant II system or a stuck Air Flow Box. The Bentley repair/service manual will have a good procedure to follow for checking that system with a Digital Volt Ohm Meter.

You make me wonder if the timing belt is not at fault here. You moved the intermediate shaft a few teeth? How did you accomplish this? How does the engine sound when you crank/turn it over with the starter? Set up the timing belt correctly and then hopefully you can rule that out of the possible causes. ;-) Check the crank's TDC with both the flywheel and the #1 piston at it's highest point. Check the Camshaft position with the correct marks (Not sure if you look at the back side of the sprocket and the line it up with the cylinder head's valve cover front edge. Or if it has a mark on that plastic section of the timing cover that is affixed to the VC and you use the mark in the front of the

Got Gas? ;-) later, dave (One out of many daves)

Reply to
One out of many daves
Loading thread data ...

I pulled the timing belt off and advanced/ or backed off the intermediate shaft by 1 tooth then re-installed the timing belt. By doing this and keeping the cam and crank shafts where they were I caused the distributor to send fire to the plug either earlier or later. In the bentley book it says that the maximum offset is one tooth so it was worth a try. I check the TDC mark and it is Top dead center on the #1 piston. And it should be the top of the valve cover, the DOHC have the mark on the plastic piece.

I have a digital volt/OHM meter but the bentley book says it has to be "low impedence" I don't know if mine is or not.

As far as the sound when its turning over, sounds to me like it has frozen fuel lines, but there is fuel, I took all the plugs out and turned it over and I can see the fuel spraying from the spark plug holes.

Reply to
E

Yes the DOHC might have the mark on the plastic piece TOO (although I thought it was metal), but some of the SOHCs have their marks on the plastic piece bolted to the valve cover also! AFAIK If you see it on the plastic piece, then that is where you time the camshaft.

WOW you are good! You can hear frozen fuel lines? I need your ears! 8^) I usually listen to the engine to see if I hear the compression strokes while cranking over the engine. If there is no compression then the engine sounds more like a constant whrrrrrrr almost like just an electric motor (heater blower with bad bushings maybe).

Reply to
One out of many daves

I do have the mark on the pastic piece, but when I set it up to that mark the car whirls like an electric motor, and mostly what you hear it the exhaust making putting noise. When the cam is set to the edge of the VC the car almost sounds like it wants to go, but never actually catches. This leads me to believe the correct timing mark on this car is the VC, and when we did the head gasket 5 years ago, I'm sure we used the VC as the mark.

I turned the Crank to TDC, by the mark in the bell housing and verified with a plastic rod in #1 spark plug hole. I then set the rotor to the mark on the distributor housing and the cam to the VC and installed the timing belt (once again) and it still does not want to go. I have searched high and low for any broken wires in the engine compartment, but only found one, it turned out to be a previous owners problem with the headlights, all new wires had been run at the time as I folowed them all the way to the fuse panel. I checked the air box, and there is no restiction on the flaps inside, all the vacume lines are brand new now as well. The ground wires for the ECU that are attched to the side flange looked ify, so I cut them off and regrounded them to the VC.

Reply to
E

ok then it is the front edge of the VC. ;-)

You need:

  1. compression
  2. fuel
  3. spark.

something is wrong or missing. :-( Are you sure you have distributor correct? I usually can check for spark using a timing light and cranking over the engine. I guess that you could see if the timing marks are close using the light also. I would loosen the distributor clamp and move the distributor either CCW or CW just a little and see if the engine says something good or bad.

Reply to
One out of many daves

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.