Problems with 914 2.0 ignition, 123igntion doesn work Options

[sebastian-914fan]

Hello,

after over 5 years of restauration for my 914 2.0 1973 the car is on the Road of germany again. I think it is very nice but I had to do much on the engine and the injection.

So now i want to improve the ignition and bought an 123ignition distributor. It is also available for cars with injection now.
So yesterday i installed the distributor, connected the red cable of the distributor with the new ignition coil checked the ignition with the timing LED, then connected the black wire with the igniton Coil, installed the cap, the cables and everything and tried to start the engine. But the engine did not start and there is no spark. Seems the engine gets fuel but no spark.
Now i reinstalled the old 009 distributor and the engine starts easily.
I posted my problem in the Forum of 123igniton and someone told me, that the ignition switch could be the problem and i should connect the distributor direct with 12v power source.
I guess i can take these 12v direct from the battery + instead of the ignition coil or am i wrong?

Are there any othe tips you may have for me?

Hope my english is not too bad and my new ignition will work like an new in the next days.
Thanks for help! :-)

Greetings from germany

[r_towle]

Do not connect direct to the battery or you can burn the points or the coil.
It is meant to be switched power.

It may need to be wired differently, I have never heard of the 123 distributor.

Rich

[Nine_14]

Use a "Prueflame" or Voltmeter to check out if you have voltage on the coil, but i am shure there is, otherwhise the old distributor wouldt not worki. Maybe the new one is damaged .....(distributor rotor is installed) ?? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[sebastian-914fan]

Hello,

i will check. Distributor Rotor is installed :-)

[Mblizzard]

I just installed a SVDA dizzy in my 2.0. I noticed on install that the cap while fitting well resulted in the orientation of the wires at TDC this dizzy had #1 wire located at the left front of the cap when I know that it is usually at the right back of the cap.

Quick revision of the wires and it ran great. May not be your problem but something to check.

[Spoke]

As mentioned, measure the voltage on the red wire to the distributor.

If it is 12V, should be no reason to connect directly to the battery.

Also double check all connections.

The 123Ignition seems like a good replacement choice.

Questions:

Are you trying the 123Ignition with a new coil or stock blue coil? The directions say you can use the stock coil (as long as the resistance is greater than 1 ohm which I think it is).

When you check with an LED timing light, do you connect to a spark plug wire or onto the black wire on the distributor?

How do you know you are getting fuel with the 123Ignition?

[sebastian-914fan]

Hello and thanks for your help,

i will measure the voltage today.
I installed a new coil (Bosch blue coil) i bought with the distributor. But the car doesnt start with the old coil either. The old distributor works with the new and the old coil without problems.
I checked every connection nearly twenty times (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

The LED timing light sits in the distributor.
So after i installed the distributor i connected the white and the yellow wire to the injection, the red wire to the coil but did not wire the black cable to the coil, switched on the ignition checked the timing light. When I turn the distributor the led turns on and off and when it turns on, the fuel pump begins to pump (i can hear that). So after I checked the LED i turn off the ignition, fix the distributor, put the rotor on, the cap, the cables, then I wire the black cable to the ignition coil . Then I tried to start the engine but it did not start. I checked everything but the engine still did not start and after I took a spark plug out of the ylinder put it back in the ignition cable and placed it on the engine, there still had not been any spark while starting the engine.
The same test with the old distributor and engine startet and the spark at the spark plug was good to see.

I guess i wired everything correctly.

I guess the engine gets fuel because I could smell the fuel more and more while trying to start the engine.


Thanks for help

Sebastian

[r_towle]

Old distributor set at top dead center for cylinder number one.
Remove old distributor (009 is backwards)

Put new distributor in while keeping engine set at top dead center for number one cylinder.

Put rotor on.
Where does it point now?
Retire new distributor cap to match where the rotor is pointing so that is now yr number one cylinder.

Rich

[r_towle]

Rewire cap....iPod sucks

[Nine_14]

On the 123Ignition homepage you can find a detailed istallation guide in german.

http://www.123ignition.nl/pdf/123SWITCH4.pdf

[Nine_14]

I forgot, another link for you, if any problem with your d-Jet and for understanding how it works.

http://www.sternzeit-107.de/modules.php?na...cle&sid=466

[SLITS]

What bothers me is that on the initial installation is that the ground wire (black) was not hooked up. I don't see how the LED could blink as the circuit was not complete.

On the second try, the wire was hooked up but no spark.

Is it possible that the module fried because of this.


Just a thought

[sebastian-914fan]

OK guys my fault.
I thaught about the wires black and red and have to confess that I made a mistake.
I put the red wire on clip 1 and the black on clip 15 of the coil. Actually that was wrong. So I installed the distributor again, put the red wire on 15 and the black on 1 and omg the engine startet and now runs very good.
Unfortunately my own mistake took me a whole weekend and today is sunday (not allowed to make much noise) and it is raining. So i have to wait until tomorrow to set the ignition timing perfectly.

Thank you very much to everybody.

By the way the distributor works very finde. Much better than the old one!

[Spoke]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smilie_pokal.gif)

Good to hear you got it fired up.

What bothers me is that on the initial installation is that the ground wire (black) was not hooked up. I don't see how the LED could blink as the circuit was not complete.

I thought the same thing that's why I asked if the timing was done on the spark wire.

Apparently the distributor has an LED attached to assist static timing.

The manual also has this note which is pricesless:

"If after reading the instructions you are unsure of the procedure to be followed, please ask someone who knows."

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/shades.gif)

[Jacco]

Hi Sebastian and others,

I've dug up this thread with the search function and read it with interest since I've also acquired a 123 ignition with the Injection option for my 2.0.

I do have an additional question concerning the choice of advance curve maybe you or someone else can help out.

What I was wondering is which 'curve selection' you've made on the distributor and how you went ahead in timing it correctly?

Since the original distributor for a 73 2.0 is the VW 039 905 205 or BOSCH 0 231 174 009.
The Bosch code is mentioned twice in the manual, as curve no 1 and as curve no 9 (or A when I look in another manual of theirs).
Which one did you choose and why?

Also the max advance for a stock 2.0 is 27deg BTDC @ 3500RPM, the 123 has 22deg BTDC @ 2200 RPM. This would mean I have to make a new timing mark or buy one of those fancy adjustable strobes, or am I missing something?

Hope someone can point me in the right direction.

Jacco

[stugray]

or buy one of those fancy adjustable strobes

That is what I did, and now I set my timing by using the mark on the flywheel instead of the fan.
Not all fans have a mark at 0 degrees.