fbekholden.com

Last night car was running perfectly, then suddenly lost 1 then 2 cylinders and ended up running (barely) on about 3......wouldn't idle and barely made it home.

This morning, cleaned the plugs, rotor button, and checked the leads.....Points in dist. cap look a bit chewed and rotor button a little worn.......Time for a new distributer (switch to electronic perhaps!)...?????

Won't start at all now, no plugs firing......

Sounds more like crook points Mai (fouled or gap is out of kilter) - replace and gap 'em. If they're pitted out, replace the condenser whilst you are there.

Cheers,
Harv.

Fiddled and got it back on a few cylinders.......looks like points.
Will work out how to replace and try again.....least I can move it a bit now....

Thanks Harv.

Good that you found the problem. Harv is bang-on about replacing the condenser though. The points won't last very long if the condenser is knackered. Not sure if the condenser also helps the rotor arm last longer so might still be important even with electronic points conversion. Any ideas on that Harv?

Hmmm... haven't played much with electronic ignition (not a fan of modern day black boxes ). From what I understand, the "open points" voltage in the electronic ignition replacement kits is controlled so as to avoid any arcing at all. Crow make a point of this in their advertising (controlled by a "chip"... very 80's ), whilst Petronix make a point of telling you to pull out the condenser (then keep it as a spare just in case... those guys think like I do, and probably have a similar garage stacked with crap they cant find ).

There is not much arcing at the rotor normally, though the carbon button in the top of the rotor sometimes gets a workout. The button is spring loaded, and tends to get a little sticky over a few decades . The button then doesn't contact the rotor very well, and starts to arc. You see crap on the top of the rotor, and the carbon end starts looking porous.

Rotors are normally fairly robust. As long as they don't chew out the locating tang, they last a fair while and take some abuse (once drove 400-odd km from Sydney to Tamworth with a rotor button held together with duct tape ).

Cheers,
Harv.

I had a similar problem many many moons ago with my grey motor running very rough like it was down a few cylinders. Turned out to be a small piece of the brush in the dissy cap that connects the coil to the rotor had broken off and was bouncing around causing havoc. I removed the offending piece bought a new dissy cap and all was well again.

Old apprentice joke involved removing the dizzy cap, and drawing a fine line down the inside of the cap with a lead pencil. Dizzy thinks it occasionally has an extra cylinder to feed, and misses . Comes from the same school of mechanics who find it hilarious to charge a condenser then lob it across a workshop for you to catch. Maybe not so funny in a modern workplace, but sure gave Dad a few laughs when he demonstrated it. Then again, I was stupid enough to hold sparkplug leads while he cranked the car... .

Cheers,
Harv.

Ok, new points slotted in...runs a tad better but I still have to correct the points gap (What's standard? I can't find it in my stupid Workshop Manual).
And I'm borrowing a timing light to re-set the timing.....fingers crossed this fixes it all.

A hacksaw blade is a good tool to get the points approxamate
specks for the points are 0.015 in. from memory
remember points effect timing, timing dont effect points , so set the points first then check timing.
and if you change the points gap recheck your timing.

Points at 0.012-0.016". Best to aim for the high side, as the points tend to close slightly as the little rubbing block wears.

Cheers,
Harv.

Thanks heaps Harv.
Will get the things I need for this tomorrow and have a go.

Stay tuned!

Dizzy back in and running ok (except #5 not firing even though it's getting spark)

Checked compression in all cylinders 80-90 in all but #5 which had 0.....!

So valve cover off, #5 has a broken valve spring cap/missing retainer.

Where do I get one of these....?

Gonna try and swap in tomorrow.

Mai Ki-Ki wrote:
#5 has a broken valve spring cap/missing retainer.

Where do I get one of these....?

Out of your sump?

Mai Ki-Ki wrote:Dizzy back in and running ok (except #5 not firing even though it's getting spark)

Checked compression in all cylinders 80-90 in all but #5 which had 0.....!

So valve cover off, #5 has a broken valve spring cap/missing retainer.

Where do I get one of these....?

Gonna try and swap in tomorrow.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I got some here you can have mate ........I,m in Drouin tho ..........Fingers

Thanks fingers.
You home tomorrow...?
I may be able to borrow a car to come get.

Once I get a few clients to pay their invoices i'll be down for a carby too.