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Tr3A vacuum advance

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Doyle

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Changed vacuum advance on my 1959 TR3A today and it will not fire up. I have spark and it ran before the change. HELP!
 
I assume you mean that you replaced the diaphragm assembly, that circular thing that attaches to the distributor, not just the vacuum line. It's likely that you changed something in the distributor inadvertently. Did you check the timing? Changing that assembly can change the timing.
 
Did you reset the timing? After that, just make sure all the wires in and around the distributor are not loose or shorted. Other than moving the timing way off, the vacuum canister should not keep the engine from starting.
 
The vacuum canister has a small ring at the end of the spring that sticks out into the distributor. The ring fits over a post, which pulls the points plate to advance the ignition. Is it possible the ring slipped off the post, or is of a different length than original, which has altered the initial points setting?
 
TRopic6 said:
The vacuum canister has a small ring at the end of the spring that sticks out into the distributor. The ring fits over a post, which pulls the points plate to advance the ignition. Is it possible the ring slipped off the post, or is of a different length than original, which has altered the initial points setting?
Click to expand...
No points, electronic ignition. Thanks
 
Do you have spark at the spark plug? One way to check is to take any spark plug maybe one you have laying around and then put the plug wire on the spark plug then set the little electrode on the block or head for ground and then turn the car over. If you have spark you will see the spark in gap.

You do not need to pull a plug from the car. The test is easy and quick.

steve
 
yes thank you. It was my lack of experience. I had the rotor pointing to the spark plug instead of #1 on the cap.
 
Oh. Okay, great you found it.

Is your crank pulley marked for TDC? I always static time, estimating 4BTDC.

On one of my cars the rotor simply won’t point squarely at push rod #1 per the factory manual.

It’s just a hair off, but still times up great with a fine adjustment.

Also, I realize not your problem here, but once in awhile someone will yank the distributor, forget the importance of TDC “compression stroke,” and put the distributor in 180 degrees off. Then, it’ll never start.
 
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