Houdsie wrote:
> Hi All-
>
> I've been reading this group for a while and decided to join to get
> some advice and hopefully offer some advice once I know what I'm
doing.
> I am a newbie to the aircooled VW world with a '73 Super.
>
> I tried doing a little maintenace yesterday and now she won't start.
> The engine turns, but now she won't catch. Here's what I did:
>
> 1) I pulled the radio in an attempt to rewire the speaker, but the
> radio had no power once I pulled it out (it did have it before I
pulled
> it). I gave up and put the radio back in. The car started fine
after
> this.
>
> 2) I cleaned some of the fuse connections with steel wool. I did
> connect 2 fuses as the wool started to burn, but the car started OK
> after this incident. However, my left low beam has gone out.
>
> 3) Here's where I think my problem is; I checked the gap on the
points,
> which was fine. I put a little bearing grease on the rider ala Muir
> book. I cleaned the rotor and checked the resistance. I poked
around
> the distributor a little to orient myself.
>
> 4) I changed the fan belt.
>
> The car started and ran fine the day before and right now I'm beside
> myself. I've gone over everything I touched, but have no idea where
to
> go from there. Sorry for the long posting, but I want to be thorough
as
> possible. Thanks for your help!

I am a VW newbie myself, but not new to cars. I doubt it is anything
very serious so don't panic

Are you getting spark?

If not, is your distributor cap seated correctly?

Did you have to make a large adjustments to your gap? If so, I'd triple
check it.

Maybe the contact in the middle of the inside of the cap fell out when
you regapped the points.

It could be that your rotor has worn too far down - it might have been
on the hairy edge before but cleaning and reseating it pushed to over
that edge.

Are you handy with a voltmeter, because you will probably need one of
those?

Remco