No Start

[sad_rocc at yahoo.com (Dan Smith)]

Before I stopped driving my mk1, the car had real trouble starting and staying started all of the sudden. It'd fire up, idle ok for a second and then just stumble and die. After I kept it running for a few, usually it wouldn't die at stoplights and such, but would idle low and kind of erratic. The idle screw was fine, so I used the stop screw to open the butterfly slightly (Weber TB) and this seemed to make it idle happier.
 
After that happened, I let the car sit for awhile in the cold. When I went to start it again, I jumped the battery and the car would turn over forever but never catch. A few times it came really close but then I flooded it.
 
I changed the plugs, tightened down the battery cables, cleaned the plug wire contacts and made sure the distributor connections were clean. The car will turn over all day but doesn't get a spark. I'm not sure if the above problem is related but I figured it may be so it would be worth mentioning. I'm thinking it's the coil, any way to test these? Would an upgrade to an MSD coil be worthwhile?
 
Thanks,
Dan

		
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