Distributor

[urq]

Don't toss that dizzy prematurely ... your Hall Sender may be just fine, but
there is some other problem that is stopping you.  I have seen the timing
relationship between the flywheel and the Hall Sender at the dizzy change as
the engine warms up ... and if the Hall window slips too far out of
adjustment the engine will not run.  On the US cars, the distributor
holddown/adjustment bolt his pinned in place (for reasons unknown, on the
turbos it isn't as though you can change the timing by rotating the dizzy!).
What I would recommend that you do *right away* is check the cam to crank
timing relationship ... the underlying problem may be that a pulley has
slipped a tooth or three on the belt.

Another thing to check is to make sure that power is making it to the Hall
Sender reliably ... and look inside the distributor to make sure that the
wires have not become frayed or broken due to contact with the shutter wheel
... I've seen that before.  If you find that you do need a new Hall Sender,
I'd recommend that you get a new replacement, rather than taking the time to
tear down another dizzy to pull a used unit.  You can get the part from Audi
... and I'm pretty sure I've also seen the part listed in the Bosch catalog
... so you can probably get it at just about any FLAPS ...

HTH and Good Luck!

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)


> I finally got time to try to repeat the 5KTQ no-start scenario, so I could
> try the diagnostic routine(s). After multiple warmups/shutdowns/restarts,
I
> decided to hazard a road test, and tempt the fates with a remote shutdown.
> Big mistake, as far as I can tell.
> At least I had the VOM, manuals, tools and flashlight along. At this
point,
> all signs point to the Hall sender in the distributor.
> Inasmuch as I need to get this back on the road :
> 1. Could anyone be so kind as to supply a "span" of interchangable years
for
> an 87 5KTQ distributor, i.e. late '86 through '88?, 89"?
> 2. Does anyone have a usable distributor that they would consider selling?
> I plan on extracting the hall sender unit from my kaput distributor and
> pressing on till I've come up with a viable fix/replacement.