Mk1 coil disasters please help

**geedubber** · 15-03-2008, 12:07 PM

I need someone with much more skill and knowledge of MK1's than I to explain the coil perculiarities of our particular marque.

After pouring a ridiculous amount into my newly purchased '77 1.6 petrol, I drove happily away from the clown who regards himself as a specialist VW mechanic only to find it misfiring. I obivously returned to be told he put the wrong coil in it and drove away with a new one.

Over the coming weeks the performance deteriorated to such a degree I had to return the car a second time, as the engine was cutting out whenever the vehicle came to a complete stop. He blew out the carbie with compressed air and sent me on my way.

Performance still crap, no responsiveness and motor sounds like a diesel delivery truck.

Fed up I take it to Dean at Volkspower who tells me the wrong coil has been installed and fried my points and condenser etc. and that MK1's need a very sepcialised coil as this is what a standard 12v coil will do to your donk.

So I humbly ask, what are the specs for a MK1 Golf coil, how is different to standard 12v one and where can I find one as they are apparantly like rocky horse droppings and cost $350 new?

Help Golf guru's!

**Water Boy** · 15-03-2008, 12:31 PM

Hey mate i think i see your car in the morning on my way to school on Jarmah Rd... Its white with a twin healight grille...

Go and see Boris at Volkscare in Boronia, he's knows his stuff and is no BS

**geedubber** · 15-03-2008, 12:49 PM

that's the one mate.. it's a great little car, just giving me a lot of grief. Boris has looked after my bus and I'm pretty happy with his work. And i used to take the Notch to the former owners when it was in Bayswater. he's certainly not the workshop I referred to in my previous post. I would've taken it to Boris in the first place but he was closed for most of January when I needed the work done. Wish I had waited. Any clues on the coil issue gratefully received.

**morgs** · 15-03-2008, 02:48 PM

I have a couple of coils laying around. Your welcome to take one.

Morgan (Boronia)

**h100vw** · 15-03-2008, 03:19 PM

You need to use a coil from a points car not one from a car with electronic ignition.

Its been a while but IIRC on a points car you have a coil with a ballast resistor. During cranking the resistor is out of circuit and the coil gets full battery voltage producing a good spark for starting. Once running the ballast resistor comes into play dropping the voltage across the coil, the spark is still more than adequate to run the engine.

Electronic coils are built differently but I can't remember why, there is no ballast resistor used with them for sure.

One thing to note with the points on a Golf, if the gap is too small you get really poor performance. I had this when I bought my first MK1 GTI. The gap was set per the book but the gap needed to be almost doubled to get normal power from it.

Gavin

**geedubber** · 15-03-2008, 03:25 PM

that's guys.. you rule.

**Water Boy** · 15-03-2008, 03:28 PM

Yeah sweet goods on the plate WGN***.......

**geedubber** · 15-03-2008, 03:31 PM

yeah, nice pick up at vicroads!

**Oneofthegreats** · 15-03-2008, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by geedubber

So I humbly ask, what are the specs for a MK1 Golf coil, how is different to standard 12v one and where can I find one as they are apparantly like rocky horse droppings and cost $350 new?

Help Golf guru's!

$350 buck's for an ignition coil for a point's ignition system

Is it made of 24K gold & comes with the winning lotto ticket?????

You could either convert it to a factory electronic ignition system & have plenty of change let over, or fit a full race MSD ignition for that.

You can get a top quality Bosch GT40R Ignition Coil to suit a point's style ignition sysem (The "R" designation is for use with a low voltage "ballasted" system) for less than $50.

Had one on one of my 77 GLS. Never had a problem.