Fuel pump gone bad?

[Click_It]

This 1 screw has me beat. I might try drilling it out or something. Can't make any headway with it, totally shredded now.

UPDATE:
Got it! That's one mangled up screw but it's off

Does that 4 toothed sprocket come out or just loosen up so you can spray behind it?

[Click_It]

It just occured to me I've probably done this all wrong, I need to get those 2 nuts off and clean from the other side?

[Click_It]

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[FestYboy]

Oh no!!! You weren't supposed to remove anything in the dizzy, just hose it out. I'm sorry if you inferred that I ment for you to remove anything.

[Click_It]

That's okay my fault not yours

I did hose out with brake cleaner it was mostly clean in there, a little rusty looking liquid came out but not much.

I reassembled it, even with the mangled screw it still works. Unfortunately no improvement. 12V from the coil goes IN, 0 comes out. It cranks but no power obviously. The contact points inside the dizzy cap are like new.

Have I done everything that I can do with the distributor? Should I take those bolts off the back to clean inside the rear?

At this stage does it look like I need to get a whole new distributor?

EDIT: Unrelated - A neighbor yesterday told me they have someone in their family with a 93 auto festiva, 31,000 miles on it, about to become too old to drive. I've expressed my interest in getting hold of it for a parts car! Apparently its got a lot of external rust but internally its still a baby!

[Click_It]

If you think I should buy a new one. I've found this on eBay seems reasonable. If my dizzy is dead surely I need to replace the whole thing right?

I'll wait to hear back from you before I go ordering anything though.

[FestYboy]

Ok so what you have happening is the ICM inside the dizzy doesn't recognize that the dizzy is turning. With that, the ICM then doesn't remove the ground to the coil to induce the spark to the tower lead. Easiest solution is a new dizzy, second easiest is replace the ICM and pickup coil (if you can find one).

[FestYboy]

Did you check the secondary winding to make sure it's not a failed coil?

[Click_It]

I haven't check the secondary winding yet, I understand ignition coils have primary and secondary windings but that's about where my knowledge ends. Where would I access the secondary winding to test?

Just looking at this diagram here...




EDIT:

Ah wait, is this what you're talking about?

[Click_It]

Following the illustration above I get:

Primary 0.4 ohms
Secondary 12k ohms

Time to get that new distributor. I did price just the ICM and coil like you mentioned as the second easiest option but it ends up being more expensive than an entire new distributor.

Thanks for your help on this one, I've learnt a lot. Fingers crossed this distributor fixes everything for me.

[FestYboy]

You're welcome. Keep us posted on the results.

[Click_It]

Will do! It shipped Friday afternoon so I should have it by Wednesday next week.

[Click_It]

Worst fears realised today. New dizzy arrived, installed (nice and easy job). Still no spark
I even changed the spark plugs over in anticipation of everything running nicely.

I just took a look in the carb and noticed no fuel is jetting through when I use the throttle. Last week I pulled out the fuel filter as my first thoughts were contaminated fuel, gravity then took the rest of the fuel down the lines and back to the tank I guess. With air in the lines now, do I have to get fuel back up there before this will work? I was hoping cranking it over would suck it back up but that's not the case.

I hope I wasn't right in the first place and it WAS the fuel pump! Hmmm. I'll go back and check that I haven't knocked any wires/connections out by accident.

[FestYboy]

Unfortunately the spark and fuel systems are completely isolated in a carb car, so if there is no spark, it is isolated to just that that touches the spark components (I.e. coil distributor, leads, and camshaft). And any fuel issue is isolated to just that that touches fuel components (I.e. tank, sock, lines, filter, pump, and camshaft). Note that there is just one component shared between the 2 systems.

[Click_It]

So the shared component is only the camshaft. This seems like a dumb question but shouldn't the fuel pump be able to pump fuel back through the lines (which are currently air filled)? When it was working last week (after I emptied the fuel filter) it must have been pumping what remained in the pump itself which is now gone. I just assumed it would be able to get the fuel back itself, I've replaced the fuel filter twice in the past and dont recall any lack of fuel problems then. The difference I guess is each of those times the fuel pump would have retained all the fuel still present in it.

If the answer to the above question is no it can't, then how can I help it do its job again, manually put fuel back into it or is this already telling you it's dead / too weak and needs replacing? It was jetting fuel into the carb last week (fuel from the pump itself).