Big Problems, can anyone help? Options

[stuart]

Alright, before I even get started I want to warn you all that this is a pretty long story, with a lot of stupid decisions on my part, and a lot of frustrating electrical-type stuff, and I would understand if no one wanted to wrestle with it, because I'm sure you all have much better things to do.

That being said, I just bought my 1st 914 about 5 months ago, and have been able to drive it for a sum total of about 4 weeks, and am starting to feel really hopeless. I've gone as far as I can alone, and probably much further than I should have. So if any of you can help, I would be forever grateful to you. Anyways, here's the story so far:

I live in Kansas, and bought the car (a '75 1.8) in Boulder, CO. It started fine in Boulder, but on the way home we stopped for dinner, and it wouldn't turn over. So, we push-started it and drove home.

When we got home, I looked at the starter connections, and the red, yellow, and black wires were all fine, but there was a blue wire with "30 amp" written on it, that apparently had sheared off at the firewall. So, I had a wire connected at the spade terminal (see pic) and a frayed end. I then spent the next week looking in the engine bay for the other end of the wire, or at least somewhere it was supposed to connect to. I invited a few mechanic friends over, went over the wiring diagrams, sliced bundles of cables, and could find NOTHING. Finally, I gave up and ran wire from the ground post and the spade connector, and used a push-button in the front of the car to arc the two terminals together-which worked, even though it looked a little goofy.


So the car ran for a few weeks, but I noticed a little sputtering around 3500 rpm. I checked the vacuum advance, did the timing, but the sputtering came back. Then, one night I parked the car (and later realized I left the key turned on), and the next morning I tried to start it and it wouldn't catch. So, I disconnected the lead from the coil, grounded it to the fan shroud, and there was no spark.

Now, the car was fitted with a pertronix ignitor module from a previous owner, and I was worried that I might have fried it by leaving the key on. I also wondered about the coil because of the sputtering, and decided to take the opportunity to do an ignition tune-up, so I ordered the Pelican Parts ignition kit with points, plugs, wires, condensor, coil, and distributor rotor and cap. I replaced the coil, wires, rotor, and cap, hoping that the ignitor was still good, because I didn't want to have to put points back in. But...no spark! so, I put the points back in, set the gap to .4 mm, and was going to have my brother crank the engine over to check for spark again.

But, as soon as he turned the key to "on", smoke started coming from the points. Now, I was 80% sure the lead from the points was supposed to connect to the negative terminal on the coil, but not 100%. So, out of frustration and desperation, I tried plugging the green wire from the points onto the positive terminal. Well, there wasn't any smoke, so I had my brother crank the engine again, and it turned over-once. Now, there's nothing when I press the starter button.

So, that's the whole messy story. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Below is a picture of the starter wiring, and then the coil wiring.

[lapuwali]

On the starter, there SHOULD be a big fat wire from the battery + terminal to a screw terminal on the solenoid. This wire is usually red, but covered in black heatproof shielding. There should also be a medium sized yellow wire on a spade terminal (that's from the starter switch). Finally, there's a wire intermediate between those two (also red) that runs up to the alternator (B+ to alternator, just happens to go through the starter).

On the ignition wiring, there should be a black wire from the relay board to the coil + post (switched +12 from the ignition switch). The wire from the points should go to the coil - post. The tach wire is a black/purple wire (hard to see the purple), also on the coil - post.

The Pertronix is very likely dead.

You didn't list a condensor in your list of new ignition parts. The Pertonix doesn't need one, but points most certainly do. I'd replace your now burned up points, buy a condensor, as well, and expect to have to replace the coil, too.

[stuart]

On the starter, there SHOULD be a big fat wire from the battery + terminal to a screw terminal on the solenoid. This wire is usually red, but covered in black heatproof shielding. There should also be a medium sized yellow wire on a spade terminal (that's from the starter switch). Finally, there's a wire intermediate between those two (also red) that runs up to the alternator (B+ to alternator, just happens to go through the starter).

On the ignition wiring, there should be a black wire from the relay board to the coil + post (switched +12 from the ignition switch). The wire from the points should go to the coil - post. The tach wire is a black/purple wire (hard to see the purple), also on the coil - post.

The Pertronix is very likely dead.

You didn't list a condensor in your list of new ignition parts. The Pertonix doesn't need one, but points most certainly do. I'd replace your now burned up points, buy a condensor, as well, and expect to have to replace the coil, too.

The yellow, red, and the wire with the black sheath are all accounted for, but there was one other wire that was connected to the starter, and which it seems like no one else has heard of. Could this be unique to the 75 1.8?

forgot to list condensor, but I got one of those too.

In the picture, the green wire is coming from the points, then the tan-ish wire (also on the negative terminal) leads to the huge bundle of wires leading from the ECU to the air sensor. Also on the negative terminal is the purple-and-black tach wire.
Then, on the positive terminal there are two wires crimped to a single spade connector, which come from the driver's side relay panel. This is how I remember the old coil being wired (besides the green wire, anyway) but it sounds different from what you're describing. Maybe there's some extra wiring required for the pertronix? I'll look into it.