Does it die dead? How long 'till you can start it again? When you say the amp light comes on right afterwards, for how long and what makes it go away?

Faulty battery, as in an internal short or open circuit? Doubtful - the car should run with a completely killed dead battery. In fact, it SHOULD run without a battery at all. Won't start too good, though.

This was also happening before you got your new alternator, wasn't it?

Bad ignition switch or short/break in the system somewhere is my guess. What's the rest of the electrical system do, specifically stuff on different circuits? Headlights should stay on, for instance, but blinkers might not.

Dies dead (like 0 rpm - to whatever it was before). I just had a battery with an open cell before and that is what it would do to my volt meter. It's hard to see when you're driving and trying to find a spot to stop and watch the volt meter at the same time. I know that the alt will run the thing, I'm thinking of a short.

It was happening before the new alternator, then I thought it was fuel related.

Bad ignition switch is possible (as this one is not factory). It's so intermittant, that it is hard to say what everything else does. But for a short time there is nothng.

DAMMIT

Sounds like ignition,
What distributor/ trigger system? I have seen the wires to the pick-up break and have symptoms similar to yours, advance moves the pick-up plate wires open engine dies then as the plate moves back the wires make contact ....
Heat related fault in either control box, coil, and even the tach

Intermitent problems like this are a bugger to find, best of luck that you find it quickly.

Got a spare battery to try? This one was giving you no trouble before, I assume?

If there is NOTHING when it happens - no lights, no sound, no nothing - it may well be a dead short on the high current line. It's going to be big, whatever it is. If you can narrow down what's working and what's not working when the engine dies, that might really help. Watch that new alternator (hope you don't cook something), and find it before you burn the car down! It could be something as simple as a connection going bad on the ignition switch too, since everything screws in from the back.

Start with what you've changed recently, and work your way back from there. You can probably eliminate the alternator since this fault happened before you changed that, but what else have you changed between B18 and B20? I know you've gone through the harness so what might you have undone or done wrong there? You could try the points ignition from the B18, but I doubt that's your issue if you've got no lights while this happens.

Bad luck, and so close to D-day! Personally I'd be making plans to take the Beetle right about now, unless you can find something slap-you-in-the-face simple that's causing the problem. Stupid intermittent stuff takes so much time to figure out, and you've only got 3 days left.

I'm all but I'm all too.

Again, how long 'till you can start it again once it dies? Is it immediately? If you keep the car in gear and the foot off the clutch, it stays dead while you're compression braking, right?

Once in a great while, I have had the coil in the dist on the breakerless ign go bad. But of all the k-jet cars I've worked on with bosch breakerless ign, I've only replaced a hand full of those on real high mile cars as well as a couple ballast resistors and coils once in a great while. The symptom for the coil in the dist is a car that misses and then dies hot and won't restart for a little bit and then finally will restart all to do it again. As the pickup coil gets weak, starting is a little slower too.


I've never replaced the ign box on breakerless, and I consider the one ballast resistor I changed a fluke...like damage in a strange environment or something. You can bypass the ballast resistor with the stock coil and the car will run fine, or simply not use it on a coil that doesn't need it anyway. Rebuild the dist on breakerless and it is the most stupid awesome reliable ign out there IMO.

I'd go with short/break in the ign switch or big power line somewhere is my gut.

Matt, you just said something that triggered a memory- there's a unique thing on 544's and I am about 80% sure it's true of 122's as well- there's a mainline to the back of the instrument panel- particularly the fuel gauge on 544's. From memory, it will shut every circuit in the car off, or every key-on circuit, or something...? (memory on this is dim). If you have the OE ignition swith, even if you've cut open the armoured cable, you may have a very very important wire between the key-on pole of the switch to somewhere unlikely like the fuel gauge. Actually it's not key-on, because now I remember I lost all lights along with the ignition, on two occasions, and I was in a panic it was going to get hit before I could push it to safety.
So Craig, I think what Matt and I, and Ian G are asking is to what extent the cut out affects other circuits...

The battery was fine before. I'll get it load tested today. When it did this before, it was minutes before it would run propperly, then would repeat. Funny part is that it had done 70 miles without a hitch.

I'll have a look. I had taken the coil out while I was painting. This was the only thing that was removed from the back of the switch.

It litterally goes dead -then is right back up, then dead again. About a second between states. There is no miss. So the coil is probably good?



I'm running the '75 system with the original 122 coil - so no balast resistor.

I'll check the ignition switch. Going for a quick drive right now.

More information. It seems that when I turn the turn signal on, it goes dead. I limped it home (luckily turn signals in Lethbridge are optional). No brake lights, turn signal makes it go off and on (at the same rate as the flasher) and when I turned on the headlights it turned off the car.

Jesus - what now.

Wow. It definitely sounds like vapour lock. BOY am I kidding there!

This sounds very fixable. I'm guessing you'll dive under the dash and see something obvious around your ignition switch or your fuse panel. Check for warmth. Somewhere along the line, asking for current draw from one of the supporting systems is either overtaxing a bad connection, or something like that.

I'd throw a multimeter on the +12V connection on the ignition switch and "make" the car die. See what voltage reading you get. If you get something funny, work back towards the battery. If not, work forwards towards the ignition coil or the ignition box. Somewhere along the line you're dropping the voltage below the point where the ignition system will run the engine.

Both the things you found involve the signal/marker lights, though. Is there anything else that'll kill it? Not a whole lot of electrical components in that car to begin with... heater fan maybe? At least you can test this stuff in the garage now!

Did the poor running before correspond to the hazards being on, perhaps?

The blinkers all shine brightly? Marker lights & headlights work fine as well? Other than shutting off the car, all systems are a go? When you pull the fuse for the headlights/signal lights, does the problem continue? Brake lights don't cause the problem, obviously?

Another edit - you might not see the problem after you first fire up the car, as the alternator is putting out big voltage to try and recharge the battery. Also, it might take some time for the particular bad connection to heat up and open on demand.

KNOCK on WOOD - I think I may have the fix. There are but four (4) fuses total on this car and when I had it in the garage I started thinking. Panic had left me at that point and I don't get mad - I get even. I started recounting the morning trip. The intermittent working with the turn signals (in other words load) was very weird, but totally explained the running. I was turning onto the on ramp and signalling. This also happened the other day very briefly on the way to get the car washed (only for a second - also at a turn, when signalling). It's so hard to diagnose when it just pops up.

With my wife in the car, we were just past Greg's this morning when she wants to turn on the stereo...didn't want to listen to the music of the B20 . It didn't work - that's weird, never had the stereo fail before. Then with the complete electrical melt down later, I thought there is the off chance that the two events are related.

So for a change I started at the fuse panel (I'm sort of famous for looking at electrical problems from the hardest possible point - working back to the most obvious - I'm learning). So off with the fuse box (disconnecting the battery first). The 122's are bad for having issues with fuses given their location. Most of the power in the car (including ignition) is run through a single 25 amp short ceramic fuse. While they can look great, they have to be cleaned periodically, even if you can measure voltage across the fuse. I pulled all the fuses and scoured them with my stainless brush, then I cleaned the fuses. I then cleaned all the turn signal contacts and put in new bulbs.

Get in the car, I've got a stereo working...turn signals work and I can run all powered stuff with the engine on and nothing happens. Drove back to work, brake lights work, no other issues...so I'm thinking that was the problem.

Breath...

Good on ya. Sounds very much along the lines of what I would expect you to have found. Now drive the sucker!

Edit - BTW, measuring voltage across a fuse is a bad thing. It indicates +12 at one side and ground at the other, with no other way for power to get there but through your multimeter.

I know I usually ground it then test for V+ on both sides (this is what I meant). I learned the lesson you mention the hard way (it was a cheap volt meter from Canadian Tire - damn near melted in my hands!).

The highs and lows of this car have been rather spectacular lately - lets hope it's more highs than lows in the future.

Princess Auto have a very nice fuse block that holds 6 ATO fuses.
I bought one to use in my trailer.
Would be a quick and easy fix.