Bzzt!  Zero points!

Did you look at the picture?  ;-)

On Nov 7, 2005, at 10:56 AM, John Lauterbach wrote:

> Mike, I have had the situation where the wires to #1 and #3 plugs
> were toast
> at the connection to the plugs, but the wires to #2 and #4 were
> like new.
> This has happened even with Bosch wire sets.  Also, take a look at
> inside of
> distributor cap.  Let us know if it is carbon tracked.
>
> John
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Diehr" <md03@XOCHI.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 1:32 PM
> Subject: Re: Help diagnose Cinco
>
>
>
>> Aha! The smoking gun has been found.
>>
>> Step right up folks, it's "test your knowledge" time.
>>
>> To recap:  Old van with 150k miles, was running fine, suddenly lost
>> power and wouldn't start again, about 10 miles after a fillup.
>> After towing to a gas station started once, then immediately died
>> after about 1 second.   Sounded normal when it cranked.    Wouldn't
>> start again.
>>
>> At first, thought a hall sender problem, replaced distributor and re-
>> aligned the distributor gear which was installed improperly by the
>> PO.  This turned out to be a red herring.
>>
>> Afterwards, still no spark on the #1 plug (as measured by a timing
>> light on the #1 spark plug wire).  Spark observed, however, when
>> connected to the wire between the coil and the distributor.
>>
>> So here is today's super stumper question:
>>
>> Why would there be spark at the coil wire, but not on the #1 spark
>> plug?
>>
>> 20 points if you get it here.
>>
>> Hint 1: It's NOT one of the obvious answers:   The Distributor, coil,
>> hall generator, hall sender, and all wiring is new and functional.
>> 10 points if you get it now.
>>
>> Hint 2: Although the #3 spark plug looked a bit black, it was in
>> otherwise good condition.   I had not as of yet pulled the #1 plug.
>> 5 points if you guess it now.
>>
>> See here for the smoking gun:   http://xochi.com/vanagon/Plug1.jpg
>>
>> So for the next question, what happened to cause this?
>>
>