3 cylinder Scirocco

[Benton Yoshida <byoshida@zygote.hsc.usc.edu>]

	I came home Thursday night and parked the '81 in the driveway.
Moved the car onto the street around six in the morning.  When I started
the car several hours later, the whole car was shaking like an unbalanced
load during the spin cycle and power was drastically down---basically felt
like it was running on less than four pots.
	I checked for any obviously disconnected vacuum lines and made sure
the injectors were seated (I once had one pop out).  I pulled the plug
boots one by one with the motor running and saw some sparking to the block
(gave myself a nice taste of the electric chair too) for each one although
when I repeated it today during the day I couldn't see a spark for cylinder
#4 and when I pulled it there was no change in the motor.  If I pulled any
of the other 3, the engine would stumble more than it already was stumbling.
	The #4 plug looks OK but I replaced it anyway, along with the cap
and rotor.  No change.  I measured the resistance from inside the cap to
the terminal of the #4 wire and got about 6K ohms, well below the 50K
limit.  I haven't done anything to check the fuel delivery.  Since the plug
was not wet or oil-soaked, can I assume that it's firing?
	What could cause these symptoms to occur and so suddenly?  I didn't
check the ignition timing since I don't have a light but the distributor
doesn't seem loose.  Does this sound like a thrown rod?  I called a shop
and they asked me to bring the car in Saturday for a compression check.
Any ideas?  TIA.  Trick or treat indeed, benton------

p.s.  Which plug wire should be closest to the vacuum advance canister?  Do
the Bosch caps have a mark on them to indicate where the 1-3-4-2 wires go?


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