Runing on 2 Cylinders

[BaxterGG]

Got the motor running in my '70 Baja today but I'm missing # 2 and # 4 (opposite sides of the motor???). Funny thing is, when I pull the spark plug wires out of the dist., there's no change but if I hold them close, the engine comes alive (cylinders start firing) but the second I push the wire in, it goes away??? I changed the wires, dist. cap and rotor but keep getting the same result?????? Anybody run into this before???

Greg

[Art]

My '69 Beetle has always done this very thing. You can pull the wires off of the back two cylinders and no noticeable change in sound and rpm. But if you touch the exhaust pipe while the wires are connected the pipes leaving those two dead cylinders are hot. So they're firing, just weak. I think this engine has low compression on those cylinders and at idle don't pull much. It gets great mileage and runs OK down the highway so I never worried much about it.

I changed the spark plugs, cap, rotor, wires and adjusted the valves and it didn't help. Those cylinders obviously work at high speed, so I just learned to accept it. When you pull all four plugs they show good fuel mixture and show all four to be firing.

I've put more than 35,000 miles on that engine since I noticed this problem. It's just Volkswagen contrary. Nothing to worry about if you ask me. ;)