Well the damn snow is finally gone for good - I think - maybe.

FedEx delivered the new gas tank from Wolfsburg West the other day - they do some quality work. I'll give it a good clean out and then out with the old rust-peel-bottom tank and in with the new (with old sending unit/new gasket, new gas line filter, etc). I hope to tackle the tank this weekend.

I ordered the Pertronix Ignitor for the 010 from CIP; you can pick up 009's all day, but the 010 is hard to find. I picked up a FlameThrower coil at a local auto parts; they wanted a stupid amount of freight money for the "special order" Pertronix spark plugs. I ended ordering those online right from Pertronix - probably could have done that with the coil (only save $5).

Hopefully I'll have all the ignition parts early next week. The Bug looks pissed that it's still in garage and it's almost May.

looks great!!!

can you post a picture of the top pressing of that tank? Thanks

It's been forever since the last post - my dad had health issues so everything else took a back seat. Thankfully he's doing much better.

I put in the new gas tank from WW - no drama and excellent quality. I had to put in a new electric fuel pump because fuel filter stripped and won't come off - tested the old pump and it was barely pushing fuel. New unit works fine.

I put a Pertronix Ignitor in the 010 Bosch dizzy, attached a new Flamethrower coil and new Pertronix 7mm spark plug wires as well. I suspected the windings in the old Bosch blue were going bad - putting out a spark, but on the weak side.

Finally had some time the other day so I cranked over the Bug ... well at least the new gas tank doesn't leak.

I've got a no-spark situation. I wired everything according to the instructions, but no go. I pulled the lead wire off the coil and held it 3/8 inch from crankcase (metal) while someone turned over the ignition - no spark. The coil has 3 ohms of primary resistance - recommended unit for the Ignitor setup.

I've checked all the wires, fuses and nothing jumps out or is blown. I put the old Bosch blue coil back on and the same thing - no spark from the coil. I also tried the old spark plug lead coil wire to rule out the new plugs - no spark.

Troubleshooting wise: coil wire connections are tight and polarity is right. Pertronix mentions if the air gap between the module and magnet sleeve is too great it could cause a no-start issue - but that tail shouldn't wag my no-spark coil dog, right?

It would seem odd that the volt regulator would give up the ghost. The coil's resistance should be OK in this application. I haven't checked the amperage - I think 4 cylinder shouldn't exceed 4 amps. But again, I'm running the recommended applications (coil and Ignitor).

Anyone have thoughts - electricity is not my strong suit.

I've taken a backward step with this work, which I hoped would solve my spits and sputter issues. At least the Bug started and ran before.

It's something you installed or the installation:

first step ensure you have your ignition voltage to the coil(+), test light or meter work perfect for that.

next step it to verify you crimped the spade terminals onto the electronic ignition properly. Really the only way to verify that is to crimp on new ones.

double check that you got them on the correct terminals of the coil.

If all that is good I would stuff points and condenser in there and see if it starts. if it runs then send the petronix electronic ign back for an exchange, if it still doesn't then i would swap your old wires back on, you might have a bad coil wire.

isolate one part at a time and eventually you'll find a smoking gun, but its definitely something you touched.

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, I've created several variables for things to go wrong. However, I pulled the wires from the Pertronix Ignitor (red and black) to isolate the coil - but still no spark. I also tried several different ground points for the ground wire off the neg. side coil to the distributor. Dumb question: If the ign. coil was good/wired correctly, shouldn't I get a spark independent of the Ignitor in the distributor?

I'll check the ignition voltage to the coil tomorrow and crimp on new spade terminals.

Nope, you need that trigger from the "points" so the coil can discharge.

OK, that makes sense. I can see how thinking the coil is at fault might be wrong. I'll try at it again tonight. Thanks.

using a test light is easiest to check that the coil is getting the correct voltage, the positive should stay on when cranking and the negative should be flashing when cranking the engine over.
if you dont have that then I would suspect the pertronix

The BUG LIVES. It was a bad wire and my own dumb-ass stupidity.

Turns out I had run one too many ground wires. I put the yellow ground wire (pictured below) in the same configuration as when it was the ground for the old Bosch coil (one end on neg coil and the other ended grounded to the dizzy by way of the points arm/breaker plate).

A gearhead friend came over and figured it out in 5 minutes. Sure enough the wire was acting as a "kill" because there was already a ground wire running from the Pertronix electronic ignition module to the coil. I'm a dumb-shit.

When we pulled the "second" ground off the Bug we had spark. However, the Bug didn't want to stay lit - had to change the timing around 20 deg. Timing light said something was off since it wouldn't go past 10 deg advance no matter the revs.

So .. dumb shit move number two. I somehow jamed up the weight inside the dizzy when I was pushing the breaker plate back on after cleaning it. It magically advanced once the weight was unstuck from my ham-fisted work. It was set at 32 deg totally timing.

Drove the Bug in a drizzle. I still have an occasional spit (I won't call it a full "miss") at a steady 2,000 rpm. It occured twice in our drive, but the Bug ran well - good get up and go.

I don't think it's electronics or fuel delivery issue. Perhaps a valve occasionally not seating fully? Might pull plugs and do a compression check. However, I don't expect big difference between cylinders. Of course, it took me a week to figure the ground wires issue - so what do I know