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'88 VW GTi 16v 1.8L CIS-E F.I. TCI-h Ignition

The car started fine for the trip home from work, and has never had this type of problem before. It ran fine, too. Later that evening my wife went to put it in the garage and it would not start. There is no spark to any of the plugs. It cranks fine, the cams turn, and the distributor rotorspins with the exhaust cam, so no belts or chains are broken.

I've checked the distributor and plugs and though they can stand to be replaced, I wouldn't expect them to cause a complete and instant ignition failure. The coil resistance checks meet Bentley's specs, but other than that, Bentley says I need special test equipment to check other components or risk frying them (if they aren't already).

Someone at a VW parts place also said that there is a switch that has to be made up on the ignition switch when the key is turned to get spark at the plugs. Bentley didn't mention anything about it, and I'd never heard of it before.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!