Last Fri. I took my 914 V8 down the street to check the clutch adjustment. I turn around about a block away to come back and it dies about 100 yds away. I thought I ran out of gas since I had only put maybe 2 gallons in the tank. So I put about 5 gals. in and it still won't start. Seemed like the ignition system failed, but I checked the coil and measured out good. Finally my neighbor came home and he helped me push it uphill back to my house. After that I said the hell with it and didn't feel like working on it anymore. Yesterday I pulled the fuel line off the carb and ran the pump - plenty of gas flowing. I hook my scope on the neg. terminal of the coil and crank it. Nothing, no switching. Crap, my brand new Accel distributor bad. I pull the cap off and look what I see -
The +12V lead had been rubbing against the reluctor and wore through the insulation. There was only a tie wrap for a strain relief, and the wire was routed in a way that a small pull brought it in contact with the reluctor. Fortunately this was an easy fix and I made some improvements so it wouldn't happen again. But why did this have to fail in the few short minutes I took it out on the street?