Driving out of the business park, over railroad tracks (some jostle, as typical of crossing), car loses power and dies. I try to restart in a nearby parking lot-> no go. No tools and light is fading fast so I call AAA for a transport truck to haul me home.

Diagnosis: First, check to see if timing belt is snapped. It's intact. Next, crack fuel line at rail, spray = pressure, and I can hear the pump each time I turn the key, so it's not a dead fuel pump or bad relay. Pull the #1 spark plug and set on top of engine to watch as I crank over in the car... No spark. Ah-ha. Pull the distributor cap and can rotate the rotor >60° by hand... That's not right. Pull distributor, gear is in shards.

Order new bronze gear from 034 and wait for it to show. Received last Thursday, had some trouble driving out old pin (finally had to drill it out), then drove around for an hour in my wife's car Sunday trying to find a replacement (finally settled on Napa's $0.19 roll-pin... sure wish 034 would just include this with their gear).

Anyhow, I verified TDC of #1 piston with 12" extension, confirmed with the flywheel mark of 0° through window in bell housing (although I don't see a reference etching or line to line this flywheel mark up with... can someone help with a picture?). I pushed car in gear back and forth until the flywheel mark was as near to the parallel edge of the bell housing window as possible.

After removing the valve cover and picking out any remaining chunks of plastic gear, I've sealed it all back up and installed the distributor. I rotated the Hall sender mark to match up with the distributor mark, which was under the hot side of the rotor. I then installed the distributor and rotated the housing as necessary to have these lines matching up (but jeez, it's not easy to see under the rotor).

Reinstalled the distributor cap, plug in everything I've disconnected, reinstall my plugs and wires, and cranked her over...NOTHING... same cranking...

I pulled the #1 plug out, left it connected to the wire and cranked again... No spark. Pulled the cap and verified that the rotor was indeed turning when cranking. It doesn't smell like fuel, and the plugs aren't wet, so it seems that the injectors aren't firing along with my problem with no spark...

Help me out with some tips on where else I need to be looking for this problem. I've read through some peoples similar issues but most that seem identical don't really state what the solution was... Maybe I shouldn't be discounting sensors, but up to this point, the car was running great with plenty of power (for a 7A).

Thanks for the responses in advance.

 

My 91 Audi 90 has an issue where if it gets hot (Happens to me all the time in the summer) or if I turn the car off after running a while and try and restart it wont. I have replaced a ton of stuff including Hall Sensor and Distributor and never found the issue. I think my issue might be fuel? It is heat related.

 

Update: pulled the distributor, cap, and wires. Put the car in 1st and rocked it in the driveway until the -0 on the flywheel was just peeking past the straight edge of the transmission bellhousing. Verified that the #1 exhaust cam lobes were not engaging the hydraulic lifters through the oil fill hole on the valve cover.

Reinstalled the distributor paying extremely close attention to ensuring the Hall mark was lined up with the distributor housing mark, and that both of these were infact aligned with the #1 cylinder wire (to me, it appears that if both the marks on the Hall and distributor are aligned, the alignment notch in the distributor cap ensures that they are pointed at the #1 wire).

Put everything back together, made sure all plugs were reconnected and engaged ignition. Still nothing. What am I doing wrong? Should I have someone cranking while I rotate the distributor?

Others who've replaced the distributor gear, please share your experiences.

 

Final update: Pulled timing belt cover (and broke it in the process) and rotated engine to verify that the mark on the cam pulley was aligned at the notch on the valve cover. Further verified that the 0-- mark on the flywheel was just visible through the window. Everything looked right, and all connections were made. Keyed the ignition and still nothing but cranking.

Loosened the distributor hold-down piece and rotated it slightly as my wife held ignition and waa-laa! It started.

Lessons learned...
1) If you have everything lined up exactly, maybe it's too exact and needs some slight adjustment.
2) Ask for help, especially if the task is as easy as turning a key... I'm certain that if I had had someone hold the ignition Monday night the car would have fired, and probably even on Sunday (I might have had a set of wires incorrectly crossed at #1 and #2 cylinders). Nevertheless, I'm pretty certain that I didn't change ANYTHING other than re-verifying every reference point for the ignition timing and then turning the distributor slightly clockwise.