Trouble starting

[sciroccos at earthlink.net (Jim Ruffi)]

I had the same problem with my 88.  Spark stopped when the starter was
cranking and started right after I let the key back off of the cranking
position.  I could only get it to start if I cranked it 1 second at a time.
If I continued to crank it, it would flood, as there was no spark.  I had to
try to get it to fire off of that "single" spark that occured when I
released the key.

I replaced the ground cable with a new one and the problem went away.

HTH

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Mike Smith [mailto:smithma7@gmail.com]
>Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 2:56 PM
>To: car
>Subject: Re: Trouble starting
>
>
>So I was at a garage in DC today.  Guy didn't know too much about VWs
>to know why without keeping it for an extended period of time (wasn't
>going to leave it there and have no way home) but he did poke around
>under the hood testing things and he said 2 things:
>
>1) The battery is going bad.  He put a booster pack on it and it
>cranked a lot easier and fired up a little quicker.
>
>2) "Losing power to coil in crank position"... that's what he wrote
>down for me.  He said that when the key is in the "on" position, the
>coil is getting power, but not when the key's in the "start" position.
> Found that out when he was testing for spark.
>
>What say you, list?
>
>'86 16
>