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I am in contact with FB71 and, hopefully, mechanicalDJ, on this prob I have, but I thought I'd bring it to the Forum and see if anybody has any ideas. I'd really to solve this issue because I think it would make for awesome education for fellow carb'd members.
I bought the car not running. It was owned by a mechanic who had replaced virtually every ignition part several times; I have the extra parts as pseudo-proof. I guess he had replaced everything except the distributor itself, and I now own 3 of them if that ends up being the problem.
Car is not getting any spark to the spark plugs. No Spark at the coil either. I ran a couple coil tests and determined that the existing coil was bad. I replaced it with a coil that tested good and the car started right up.
As I went to adjust the idle, the car died. No Spark, again. I removed the wires from the coil, cleaned them, removed the suppressor in case it was shorting out and the car started right up. Within a minute, the car acted like it lost power twice, then died. No Spark.
FB71 said it might be an ignition switch issue. I was talking to ElCamino1 when he said I could do a "back alley" test that would tell me if the switch was the problem. Took a test light, hooked (-) to battery and ran a 2 clipped jumper wire from (-) of coil to pointer on the test light. This allowed me to put the test light on the windshield so I could see the light from inside the car. I turned the key to the "on" position, test light lit up, then wiggled the key. The light stay on constantly, so I saw no reason, at least from that test, that the ignition switch is bad.
I then read and re-read and re-read FB71 notes to me. He said the coil, when the starter is turning over, should have constant power to the (-) and a pulsating current to the (+) of the coil. I believe he said that when the test light is "off" during the pulsating is when the coil fires to the distributor. At least that is what I think he said. Anyways, when I turn the motor over, I have constant current on both sides of the coil.
To me, that says something is not "switching" in the distributor. Now, does anybody know how to test the distributor to see if it is bad? Or any other tests I need to run to narrow down things?
When I get this resolved, I will do a complete write-up on it to help others.
Thanks in advance.
I bought the car not running. It was owned by a mechanic who had replaced virtually every ignition part several times; I have the extra parts as pseudo-proof. I guess he had replaced everything except the distributor itself, and I now own 3 of them if that ends up being the problem.
Car is not getting any spark to the spark plugs. No Spark at the coil either. I ran a couple coil tests and determined that the existing coil was bad. I replaced it with a coil that tested good and the car started right up.
As I went to adjust the idle, the car died. No Spark, again. I removed the wires from the coil, cleaned them, removed the suppressor in case it was shorting out and the car started right up. Within a minute, the car acted like it lost power twice, then died. No Spark.
FB71 said it might be an ignition switch issue. I was talking to ElCamino1 when he said I could do a "back alley" test that would tell me if the switch was the problem. Took a test light, hooked (-) to battery and ran a 2 clipped jumper wire from (-) of coil to pointer on the test light. This allowed me to put the test light on the windshield so I could see the light from inside the car. I turned the key to the "on" position, test light lit up, then wiggled the key. The light stay on constantly, so I saw no reason, at least from that test, that the ignition switch is bad.
I then read and re-read and re-read FB71 notes to me. He said the coil, when the starter is turning over, should have constant power to the (-) and a pulsating current to the (+) of the coil. I believe he said that when the test light is "off" during the pulsating is when the coil fires to the distributor. At least that is what I think he said. Anyways, when I turn the motor over, I have constant current on both sides of the coil.
To me, that says something is not "switching" in the distributor. Now, does anybody know how to test the distributor to see if it is bad? Or any other tests I need to run to narrow down things?
When I get this resolved, I will do a complete write-up on it to help others.
Thanks in advance.
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