Car Thread

[rogruth]

Robert,
Congrats on your savings.

[MYmoo]

Healey

Don't forget to check the primary side of your ignition circuitry...
coil,to ign sw. thru, Yup, all the way back to the battery.
Try moving ALL connections. If you can, tighten as appropriate.
Don't just visual check.

As mentioned above, check ground straps, batt. to frame, to engine/trans, to dash and controls.
VW in the late '60's started adding extra ground wires on all components (even those with metal to metal contact) to help minimise temperature related and corrosion related (sometimes intermittent) electrical problems.

An intermittent electrical problem is always a b--ear to find,
especially when you've replaced a bunch of parts, and it's still there.
(B.T.D.T.)

Good Luck on the resolution to your problem

[Tom Dempsey]

Old coils can become marginal, internal wire to wire problems, etc. In the old days, I fixed several intermittents and emission failures with a coil replacement.

[healey36]

Thanks guys...working my way through the wiring.

Just got a Moss flyer in the mail yesterday...coils are on sale!

Healey

[healey36]

Certainly, a coil can fail. But the only way you have an intermittent from the coil would be an open inside, and as the engine and coil warm up, it would come together for full spark. Nah! No Way! If it's open, it's open, and there's no spark. But think on this. Where does the coil get the signal to fire? From the points and condenser. As I said earlier, a weak spring in the points that don't allow them to close fully and then break, or a condenser that don't load properly. And don't rule out ignition cables only because they're 3 or 4 years old. Carbon wires can and do fail. Broken or weak valve springs, or a valve dragging in the seat, that expands with heat and begins to move more freely as clearances increase. Lot's of stuff to check. Good thing it ain't a 16 plug HEMI.

Thanks Mitch. My thought on the coil exactly. In all of the years I've been fooling with this stuff, never had a coil fail (probably just jinxed myself).

Points and condenser 'look' good and they have less than 100 miles on them. I've got a new condenser on the shelf...I'll just go ahead and swap that out and see if that does the trick.

I've had issues with ignition wires before, but that seems to manifest itself when there's dampness. Under dry conditions the car ran fine (not this car, but a couple of Fords I had back in the 1980's).

Healey

[robert.]

Spray your wires with a windex bottle. Do in the dark of night or lights out in your garage.

[Mitch]

Spray your wires with a windex bottle. Do in the dark of night or lights out in your garage.

Geez! I thought I said that 2 pages back.

[webenda]

Comment deleted.

[Mitch]

Leave to somebody to pick nits!

[webenda]

Leave to somebody to pick nits!

Main ingredient in both products is water, so, if you ignore the nits, you were right again, as usual, Mitch.

[rogruth]

OK. Now that that is straight, what do es one learn from the spraying?
Is the car running? Maybe you 'splained it two pages back and I missed it.

[webenda]

OK. Now that that is straight, what do es one learn from the spraying?
Is the car running? Maybe you 'splained it two pages back and I missed it.

You learn if the ignition wire insulation is leaking electricty. The water acts as a short (of sorts.) With the engine running, you spray water on one wire at a time. If the engine starts missing or mis-firing, you just found a bad wire, i.e., the one you just sprayed.

[rogruth]

OK. Now that that is straight, what do es one learn from the spraying?
Is the car running? Maybe you 'splained it two pages back and I missed it.

You learn if the ignition wire insulation is leaking electricty. The water acts as a short (of sorts.) With the engine running, you spray water on one wire at a time. If the engine starts missing or mis-firing, you just found a bad wire, i.e., the one you just sprayed.

Ah, I see.
Thank you.

[Tom Dempsey]

Do it after dark and you may even get a light show.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Leave to somebody to pick nits!

Well, we do be likin' our nitpickefrs, huh, especially when they are our surgeons, dentists, or mechankics. Yup. At leese I do.
Murph the kidder