TR4/4A Distributor Points and condensor insulating washers.....

Does anyone have a link or picture that shows where the plastic insulator washers go? Apparently there are 3?

You will have to click on the image...it's from the Haynes manual

May look different from that illustration. Sometimes it is just a one-piece thingy - the top and bottom washer with a strap connecting them.

Whatever shape your insulators might have, the power and condenser wires need to be in contact with the spring on the points and neither the spring or wires can touch a ground.
Bob

As a kid working in the dealership parts department, it was surprising how many times someone would come in on Friday afternoon and buy all the stuff for a DIY home tune up only to see that same customer's car come in on the end of a hook Monday morning. All because they failed to properly install the power and condenser wires against the spring. Less than five minutes and the issue was solved, but they still had to pay for the tow and the minimum shop charge of 0.5 hour for labor. It finally got to the point of deciding to show them where those wires needed to go against the spring before they left with their parts on Friday afternoon. Even then they were still some that had their cars come in on the hook because they either forgot or did not listen.

Well the insulating washers are in the correct location,there is a new distributor cap, plug wires,condensor and points,wire to the coil is good,rotor is new,and yet there is no power to the plugs? There is power to to the coil,which is known to be good. It has me baffled which is why I asked the question about the insulators . I thought maybe I had missed something in regard to then. What if the plate ground wire was somehow broken internally...would this cause the problem?

Is there power coming out of the coil thru the wire that goes to the dist?. Disconnect that wire and check. If not, bad coil. If so, with switch on, hold the spark output wire from the coil near the block and touch and release the otherwise loose points wire to the block. Should spark happily with each release. If not, bad coil. Do I correctly recall that you only recently got this car?

Bob

PS I assume ground continuity from block to battery ground.

karls59tr said:

Well the insulating washers are in the correct location,there is a new distributor cap, plug wires,condensor and points,wire to the coil is good,rotor is new,and yet there is no power to the plugs?

Click to expand...

That's a lot of new parts. When and where possible, change one thing at a time and confirm everything still works. It saves a lot of headaches when troubleshooting.

Did the engine ever run properly for you?

Start with the basics.
Some people pull the distributor to install new points. If you did that, did you set the static timing when you put the dizzy back?
Confirm you put those new plug wires on in the correct order. Remember the distributor rotor goes around COUNTERCLOCKWISE and that cylinder number one is at the water pump end of the engine.
Presumably you have set points before. However, make sure that you set the gap with the heel block on the points resting on one of the crests of the squarish cam below the rotor. If you set the gap at any other place than the crest, the points may never close.
Did you make sure the new cap has a spring loaded carbon brush in the center? They do break and fall out sometimes.

This is another one of those questions that goes "I did everything right, but it doesn't work." If everything were right, it would work. You need to find what's wrong.

You find what's wrong by systematic troubleshooting. First, see if you have spark at the top of the coil--crank the car with the wire end close to the block, and you should get a bright spark. If so, the points, coil, and capacitor are OK, and you need to look at the high-voltage bits. If it doesn't check out, disconnect the coil from the distributor, and connect an ohmmeter (you do have a multimeter, right?) to the distributor wire. You should see the resistance change from zero to infinite as you turn the engine. If not, something is set up wrong with the points.

Keep eliminating things in this way, and eventually you will locate the problem.

Oh, and yes, if the ground wire from the plate is broken, it COULD cause what you are seeing, or maybe not. But the troubleshooting methodology should rule this in or out pretty easily.

Say the distributor has been removed. With the the point gap set and the timing mark is set to TDC on the compression stroke for # 1...when the distributor is set in place the rotor points more to the clamp rather than to the #1 plug. Seems to me it should be pointing more directly to the plug but that seems to be where the dog meshs when I drop the dist in? What's up with that and how do I correct it?

It may be that the distributor drive gear has been installed wrong. Its kind of tricky because the gear turns as it drops into mesh with the camshaft.

Another possibility is the timing chain having jumped a tooth. I've never seen a TR do that, but I have seen it in other engines. Worth a quick check IMO just to be sure.

Another possibility is an internal failure in the distributor, like broken advance springs. On a friends dizzy, someone had apparently dripped the points nut and left it, which made a royal mess.

karls59tr said:

...yet there is no power to the plugs?...

Click to expand...

Just to be clear -- you are saying that there is no spark at the plugs when you crank the engine?

Well I finally got the motor to run.:glee: The problem was a combination of the timing being out 180 degrees plus not having the gravity feed gas container high enough to get fuel to the carbs.Doh! A friend from the local Triumph club came over and we tried rotating the dist several directions and although it was getting spark to the plugs it would not fire. At one point when I was trying to solve the ignition problem I had pulled the dist out and somehow before re installation I must have cranked the motor or maybe the timing was out before that? Once the timing issue was resolved we determined that the motor was not getting fuel as there was no smell of gas after all the cranking that had been done. We shot some ether into the carbs and it wanted to start. We then poured some gas directly into the carbs and with the fuel bowls full it fired right up. I've purchased a Facet fuel pump which I will install. My friend says that he uses an old windshield washer container for gravity feed that he hangs from the open bonnet when he works on motors where the fuel pump is inoperative. Big thanks to everyone on this forum who took time to offer their help it was most appreciated.:eagerness:

I'm glad you got it running. For the future, keep in mind my suggestion to only change one thing at a time. It makes it easier to troubleshoot problems.

Absolutely,otherwise you can't see the forest for the trees.:eagerness: