I have a 1990 VW Jetta that is not firing to start. Both the negative and positive sides of the coil has power

I use a regular bulb as a test light. I connect the positive side of the bulb to the negative side of the coil and ground the other side. When I turn the iginition on; the bulb light up, indicating that the negative side of the coil is getting power. However when I turn the iginition to start the car, the bulb only goes off. I was told to use a test light and the light should go on and off when turning the ignition to start the car. Is the bulb not going on and off indicating that the hall effect in the distributor not working or do I need to use a conventional test light to check the hall effect?

Answers:
worn dissy sparking plugs us or nackerd leads
If I remember correctly, I had a similar problem with a Passat many many years ago.

It turned out that there was another unit that sat very close to or underneath the coil that had failed - the coil itself was ok. Check your haynes manual if you have one.
there are many ways to test ie:
contect every think up -remove the king leadfrom the distibutor (the lead between the coil and the distributor) using insulated pliers hold the end close to a good earth on the engine then get a freind to turn over the car if u see a good spark replace the lead bk on your problem lies elsewhere prob the distributor cap or plugs or leads .
take th ht lead from the center of the distributer cap hold it about 1/2" from the engine block and get someone to turn the key to start you should get a HT spark if not then the fault is your coil if yes then your fault could be the carbon contact in the distributer capif point they might need replacing if electronic it could be the air gap on the rotor
have you got petrol in it?
A regular light might be too slow. A high speed test light would be better.

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