Engine won't start

[Sam]

Congrats. You did not mention this in the verbiage but some owners of "late" model A4's do not realize that they are sometimes winterizing only the exhaust manifold thru the by-pass hose. My only thought was with the difficulty in getting the engine to start you may have not run it enough to get to temperature "closing" the t-state and or clamping the by pass hose forcing the glygol thru the block? Just a precautionary thought.

[JOHN COOKSON]

I still want to go through the exercise of checking spark and timing since it's good to know how to do that but at least know how to do that

Remember to service the distributor advance under the breaker plate also.

ex TRUE GRIT

[idreamOfSailing]

Hi John, sorry, what is the distributor advance?

[Peter]

The distributor advance is located underneath the plate that the electronic ignition module is located on.

Under there you will find some springs and some weights. These all need to be able to move freely. A little light lubricating coil will suffice if it all looks pretty clean.

Otherwise, you may wish to take it apart, clean it up and possibly replace the springs - they are available from Moyer but you need to be sure you get the correct springs for your distributor. A call to Moyer is recommended.

Peter

[idreamOfSailing]

So I think you're talking about INSIDE the distributor once the cap is removed, correct?

[roadnsky]

Here's a couple of pics...

[Sam]

wow, looks a little dry but one of the cleanest that I have ever seen in working boat. I'd squirt a little lube or oil in there just to be safe and check the rotor movement for some "snap back"