jetta new coil no spark

I am working on a 1996 Jetta for a friend. I relaced then engine with a used on w/about 70k on it. It ran beautiful, I went to the car wash and thought I would degrease it for him, it died. once I was finished I removed the dist. cap and dried it out, got the car started, went todrive it and it would inter cut out, the mil came one and then flashed and went back to steady. I drove the car about 15 miles and it died adn would not restart. I found that the coil had the spark coming out of the top if it, I replaced the coil and now I have no spark at all. I replaced the hall switch in the distributor with the one out of the old motor but still nothing. Can anyone help? Briantman

I've seen cases where the jumping spark shorts out the wiring to the coil. Backprobe the center wire to the distributor with a LED test ligth hooked to battery ositive. Crank the engine & the LED should flash. The same should happen in the center wire of the coil. The outer two wires at the distributor should have 12 Volts (one pos & one ground) with the key in the on position.

I did check this last night, I had no signal at all from the center wire at the coil. Also when I hook the old coil back up, I still get a spark from the top of the coil when cranking. Is that because of the power and ground or is the signal still there? Update: I checked the wiring again tonight and found no signal at center (black/red) signal wire from ecm, no signal.. traced wire to ecm and ohm tested, 0.00 resiatance. I guess that means the ecm is bad? Please let me know what you think. Thanks for posting first response.. helped me double check. I gues what I was seeing on the old coil was it shorting out... is that what took out the ecm?

If the old coil sparks (even if it comes out the wrong place) then the rest of the system is okay. I would suspect the new coil is bad.

What if it is not spark that I'm seeing but the coil actually shorting out? I pulled a wiring diagram off of Alldata at work and it told me that if there was no pulsing signal from the center wire that the ecm was bad (as locng as the wire was good). I have tyried two coils one Beck Arnley and one from Wells, neither one would start the car. I did ohm th coil and it checked out good, but how do you check the ignitor side of this combination? I had thought the same thing as what you are saying but why do I not have spark from two coils? I have found a used ecm on Ebay, I would sure like to not have to buy it. Tell me what you think.

There is a pretty big difference between at 12 Volt short causing a spark and a secondary ignition 20,000 Volt spark arcing to ground. If you feel courageous let it spark to your finger. 12 Volt you wont feel at all, if it's a secondary ignition spark you will definitely get a jolt. Or try this, connect the new coil to it's harness & a regular (not LED) test light to ground. Backprobe the center wire with the test light probe & disconnect. Each time you touch then remove the test light it should make the coil fire (key must be on).

Checked the intensity of the park tonight and nothing felt, guess what I'm seeing is a 12 volt short. I even tried a third coil for fun and nothing. I should win this ecm tomorrow and when I get it I'll let you know what happens. Thanks for all of your advice.

Hello, I'm back, installed used ecm same old stuff. no spark. I have now switched everything in the system. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm going to throw things at this car.

I have seen cases where the coil burns out the wiring back to the ECM & ground. You need to check the integrity of these wires with a multimeter.

I did this, I have 0 ohms resistance in the center wire to the coil. I have positive and negative on the outter two wires to the coil. What makes this system spark? I have checked the wires at the crank sensor and I am getting positive and negative on the outter wires there also. I ohm tested the center wire, 0 resistance at the ecm harness (same as the coil). / ok I have found something I am unsure about. The engine speed sensor, Is it suppsoed to have positive and negative power it just like the coil and the pickup in the dist.? I have ground but no power. Does this act like a crank sensor on other vehicles and supply the pulse signal to the ecm?

Center wire of the coil connector is 0 Ohms when the other lead is connected to what? If you connect a bulb type test light to ground & back probe the center coil wire (key on & harness connected to coil) you should get a spark from the coil when the probe is removed. If not the center wire is shorted to ground.

The center wire, I tested at each end (removed fromt coil one end and ecm the other). tested each wire to coil, pick up, and crank sensor. All wires are good. What I don't know is if the crank sensor is supposed to have a positive 12 volt signal as eack of the other sensors do, it currently does not. The crank sensor is what controls the "pulse signal" to the ecm right? If there is no power it can't pulse. I called the local VW dealer today and talked with one of there technicians and explained where I am with this. He told me that I had checked each of the parts that he would be checking, he doesn't have any idea. The first few thing he said he would try were the first things I did. I loaded it on a trailer and took it to them. If they figure it out I will let you know.

Well I picked up the car from the dealer last night, they walked out popped the hood and stuck on one of their coils and it fired right up. I just since I work for a dealership I should have know to out on factory parts, but I was trying to save this kid some money. I put on three aftermarket coils and it didn't run. I did buy a vw coil (ouch) and now it runs perfect, I guess I was just looking too hard. Thanks for you help with this boschman. To anyone else who reads this, Bite the bullet and buy the factory coil if yours goes bad.

I've put on alot of aftermarket coils & never had a problem, but I have heard your story before. What brand coil did you have this problem with?

I had two kinds, 2 Beck-Arnley and one Wells. It doesn't supprise me about the Wells but I thought Beck - Arnley was a good brand.

Beck-Arnley usually has good stuff, but I have seen them do repackaging of junk into their box.

Who would they get these repackaged parts from? The problem with them wasn't the coil side it was the ignitor / module side of them. I have used alot of echlin ignition parts on other kinds of cars including honda, acura, and domestic and never had this kind of problem. I though I was going for a better product. Guess I should have stuck with the reliable.