Dear collective wisdom,
In the last year, my cars have switched their respective
reliabilities. Sysaphus, my chrome bumper '74 MGB has performed
flawlessly. Unfortunately, the '83 VW GTI that I aquired to get me
arround while Sysiphus was living up to its name, has become quite a
problem, among those problems is the lack of second and fourth gears.
To cut to the chase, the problem that has me asking for your
help is a polar reversal. Something has caused the engine block to
become positively charged. Now I can't start it. The starter (already
bench tested) won't do a thing, but I can hear a motor in the fuel
injectors doing its thing while I try to turn the engine over. If I
connect a test light to the neg battery terminal and try touching the
engine block, it lights. Is this the cry of a normal car looking for
collectable obscurity. Should I convert the rest of the car to positive
ground?
Seriously folks, any ideas on a likely short? How bad does it
have to be to cause this? Sorry about the non-LBC content, but I just
haven't had any of those problems in a long time (knock on wood).
Jim McDougal
Formerly of UCSC
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