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TR2/3/3A 1958 TR3A missing on cyls 2 & 3

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phantom132

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This summer I had a problem of it missing on Cylinder 1 & 2 and it turned out the #1 float bowl wasn’t getting gas. Replaced fuel pump & gas line. No leaks anywhere.

Now car misses on Cylinders 2 & 3!

1. New plugs
2. New distributor cap/rotor (Pertronix Distributor)
3. Coil tested and seems to be good.
4. Compression 155-160 on one gauge, 175-180 on second gauge.
5. Swap hi-tension wires around, no change. Wires themselves are good.
6. Sparks are good.
7. Set valves.

Idles ‘well,’ but if I pull #1 or #4 plug wire it stumbles and dies.
Pull #2 or #3 plug wire, no change in idle.

The miss does not ‘wander’ no matter what’s done, just #2 & #3 cylinders. Checked wiring to coil and no breaks in insulation, etc.

NOTE: In addition to the fuel pump, also replaced Steering Box/Idler Arm etc. Just mentioning it.

Completely baffled. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
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Andrew Mace said:
Forgive me stating the obvious, but double-check your firing order, which should be 1-3-4-2. It just might be that 2 and 3 got swapped around at some point!?
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You're not the first. Sadly, all I can say is that I 'don't think' I touched the HT wires while doing the gas line. Will check again because it makes sense.
Thanks.
 
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Are you using a side-entry cap? If so, those contact the high-voltage wire by puncturing it with a pointed screw. Those don't work well with the older type of resistor wiring, as the conductor is made of graphite impregnated string, and it's hard to make a good contact to it that way. Most modern wires have the resistor in the plug connector and use metal wires. You can check this with an ohmmeter. If you have the older type, the resistance will depend on the wire length.

Another option is to use solid-core wires and resistor plugs. It's hard to find nonresistor plugs today, anyway, so you might already be using them.

I have a top-entry cap with modern plug wires. I had planned to replace them with something more original, when I restored the car, but since they are good quality and give me no problems, I think I'll keep them.
 
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mctriumph said:
It is old school but double check the "new cap" for flaws/cracks. Weirder things can happen.
Mad dog
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+1
We had a batch of bad Pertronix caps a while ago. The issue has since been resolved, but not knowing when your cap was made, it's possible it could have come from that batch.

Steve, the Pertronix distributor cap uses modern plug-in wires so we should be able to eliminate that (I hope). But I have a piercing-type cap on another car so I am going to write that down for my own future reference!
 
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If you blunt the piercing screws, you can get the resistance wires to work OK. HOWEVER , there is
now a real need for loctite on each screw, as the will come loose ,falling into the distributer . Nothing good
happens in the next millisecond when this occurs.
Mad dog
 
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