Your 1969 VW bug will not turn over Is starter out?

Answer 1

Points gap won't keep the car from cranking, and that's the problem here.

The first thing we're going to do is to eliminate the starter as your problem. Get a foot of wire and crimp two push-ons onto it. Jack and chock your car, and crawl under. (Make sure to use your best jackstands--if the car falls off you will be crushed.) Unhook the bendix wire from the starter, and hook the jumper up where it went. Then grab the other end of the jumper with insulated pliers, and touch it to the left-hand bolt on the solenoid. If it cranks, it's not the starter. If it doesn't crank, you could try a couple of things...like keeping the jumper hooked up while you rap on the starter with a hammer (to unstick it--you'd be shocked at how often that happens), or tightening the bolts holding it in just in case they got loose.

I have found that one of the more popular reasons Bugs don't crank, especially ones built in the 1960s, is the bendix wire has gained resistance. Enough extra resistance, and there won't be enough energy in the wire to kick the bendix. No kick, no crank. If the car will start by jumpering it and won't start with the key, you've got two ways to solve the problem. One is to run a new wire to the ignition switch. The other, which is what most people do, is to install a foglight relay down there.

It might just be the distributor gap is incorrect. Needs to be .016 Its hard to tell without hearing it try to start up.