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TR6 Help..TR6 won't start after months of sitting

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Where is your voltmeter hooked to?

black to battery negative, red to battery positive. Fully charged battery will be appx 12.6 volts. Anything over 12 resting no drain is good. When you're cranking with the voltmeter still on the battery 11 volts is about normal. when you put the positive lead of the voltmeter onto the wire on the coil NOT coming from the distributor what is your voltage. Hopefully still eleven volts there. If not then something upstream is drawing too much electricity. When you put the positive lead onto the other primary terminal of the coil(the one coming from the distributor) you should get no voltage with the breaker points closed and the same voltage that you were reading on the other primary when the points are opened, either turning the engine or using a small screwdriver.
 
Well, I had my battery checked. It's reading good, but at a low charge. I'm charging it overnight, and hopefully this is the simple solution. Ron, I may be misunderstanding you, and I prob. used the wrong language. But, I was just simply referring to the volt gauge in my dashboard. When turning the ignition on, it would barely go to 11 (the low end), as opposed to going to the high end of the gauge 14-15. I didn't know if this was normal, and a sign that simply my battery was discharged enough to turn over, but not enough juice to start the engine. Or, maybe this is what the gauge is supposed to read, and when the engine starts, it then reads 14-15 amps.

As for this radio noise suppresor, what exactly is the function of this? This thing is hooked to one of the two positive terminals on the top of my coil. If the freshly charged battery doesn't work, I will do as suggested and just unhoook this thing. But, if anyone can tell me the function of this, I'd appreciate it. Thanks for all the help, guys.
 
Okay, 11 volts on the dash voltmeter is an INDICATION of battery voltage. When running the voltmeter should read up above 13 volts. Ideally 14.2 volts, but probably slightly less because the connectors have built up some resistance due to mileage and time. The condensor acts like an electrical sponge and is designed to pickup superfluous voltage going back into your car system, primarily as a radio noise suppressor. Will not hurt your car to unhook it. At the worst you'll get some static/clicking/whirring from the speakers of the stereo. The previous voltage readings are the first step to isolate if the ignition problem lies in the primary(battery to switch to coil to points/condensor) side of the ignition.
Another quickie test is with the distributor cap off,(after you've verified proper voltage to the coil, both primary terminals, take the coil wire terminal from the dist cap, place it appx. 1/4 from a good ground(coil mounting bracket should work) then key on open the points with a screwdriver and you should get a spark from the coil wire. Rough rule of theumb for point gap(If you don't have dwell meter or feeler blade is use a shiny business card where it just drags on the points.
When you put the points in did you put a little cam lube on the rubbing block?
 
Yeah, I lubed the rubbing block. I had a friend help me w/a voltmeter. He hooked it up, the coil read fine (12V), but the distributor only read 5-6 V. This friend is a pretty experienced mechanic with points, etc, and he is baffled. He seems to think my dist. may be bad. We worked on this thing for hours, no luck. Could it have just been a coincidence that when I put the car cover on it for the winter, the [censored] dist. went kaput at the same time? Would switching over to an electronic ignition, coil be a possible solution? If so, any suggestions on the easiest type to convert to? Thanks for the help.
 
Could this be bad fuel from the car being in the elements for months? What if I added a product like HEET (supposed to take care of the water in the gasoline). Anyone have any experience with products like this?
 
I use heet in my snow blower every winter. don't know if it helps but it doesn't hurt. Takes the condensation out.
 
Fuel, spark, air.
Air....... Sometimes on first start you leave the hood open to watch everything go round and round. Close the hood to make sure you're mixture is good.
Spark.......Did you take the battery out of the car and store inside? Remember sitting on a concrete floor can and will take out a cell, always remember to store your battery on a board.
Fuel...........Have you gotten a good whiff of flooded carbs while you were trying to start for the season?
A dirty fuel filter or even the pump could be the culprit,
Is the choke mechanism working, make sure and choke the carbs when you fire up.
I know these are all very basic and don't mean to hold myself out as an expert, but these are just a few rules I always keep in mind when I roll Ruby out for the season.
Keep on keepin on, that's the fun, you can do it!
 
Flummoxed said:
Yeah, I lubed the rubbing block. I had a friend help me w/a voltmeter. He hooked it up, the coil read fine (12V), but the distributor only read 5-6 V. This friend is a pretty experienced mechanic with points, etc, and he is baffled. He seems to think my dist. may be bad. We worked on this thing for hours, no luck. Could it have just been a coincidence that when I put the car cover on it for the winter, the [censored] dist. went kaput at the same time? Would switching over to an electronic ignition, coil be a possible solution? If so, any suggestions on the easiest type to convert to? Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how a TR6 is wired but I believe the voltage will usually only show about 7 volts at the points since it goes thru a resistor to drop the voltage...this keeps the points from burning out. Test the voltage at the distributor when you are cranking the engine...you will get a full 12V reading and it will drop back to 6 to 7V when the key is back in the 'run' position.

This is a common deal on all 12v systems in US cars...and most Brit cars, too. Don't panic and spend more $$$ than you have to...
 
Okay, my experience with electronic conversions is I put an Allison point replacement conversion(later purchased by Crane). Not a single problem on three different cars. A number of BCCH club members are using the Petronix and no problems.
I wonder about the "distributor must be bad" conclusion. the voltage comes from the idiot bulb to the coil(should be the positive post) That should be in the area of 12 volts with a fully charged battery. From there the voltage goes through the primary side of the coil, into the distributor, pigtail through the points and condensor, where it goes to ground. When the points opens, the primary coil field collapses and the coil secondary discharges.

The only failures I've seen, mechanically with a distributor have been the shaft bushings, and advance weight springs wearing. One of the advantages of going to an optical electronic ignition is that you are not putting ANY load on the lobes of the distributor shaft and greatly lessens the wear on the shaft and bushings.
Electronically, I've seen condensor failure, grounding pigtail breakage, primary pigtail(the wire carrying the voltage into the distributor to the points) grounding or shorting, usually through the insulator block that fits into the distributor housing, and cap and rotor. Points wear out, rotor and cap wear out, Some rotors are worse than bovine excrement in my experience, i.e. you look at them crosseyed, almost and the locking tab material in the rotor where it fits into the distributor hsaft breaks off, or the rotor tip is improperly made. The distributor cap center electrode(usually a carbon brush with a spring under it) will break off).
Distributor is usually a very simple device to troubleshoot and diagnose. Have you gone to "How stuff works" on the web? They usually have a pretty good explanation(with graphics) for automotive design and equipment. HTH
 
Just got back to update this thread to see what's been happening.
One thing that came to my mind is when you said you were getting 12 volts(or close to battery voltage on one side of the coil and only 5 volts on the other side of the coil???

This is an extreme voltage drop, something's wrong. Get the voltmeter back out and remove the pigtail from the coil to the distributor, turn the key on and read the voltages on both primary terminals of the coil again. Should be within 1/2 volt of each other. If not your coil has decided to retire waaaay to early.

Keep us updated please.
 
Ron and everyone, she's running again. Thanks for the great help, I couldn't have done it w/o you. I had me battery re-charged (it had sputtered out from all of the starting attempts). I bought one of those wire scrubbers and scrubbed the terminals and cable leads. It did appear there was a bit of corrosion, but not a ton. So it might have been simply a little corrosion.

The only other thing it could have been was this: The wire from the condensor and the wire from the low tension lead were hooked on to the points post ON TOP of the plastic cap of the points, and the small nut was on top of the wires. I saw somewhere on-line (Motorhead?) to make sure these two wires were beneath the plastic cap, so the small nut would not make contact w/the wires and ground them out. So, I put the eyelets of the wires underneath the plastic cap.

In hindsight, just so I could know exactly what the prob. was, I wish I would have tried the freshly cleaned-up battery and cables first. But I made both changes (cleaned-up battery and plastic cap change on the points) at the same time (and she started on the first turn). However, because of the strange readings on the distributor we talked about earlier, it does seem maybe that the condensor and low tension lead wires were grounding out because they were'nt under the plastic cap. I'm half-tempted to put these wires back OVER the plastic cap just to see if she starts. But, what makes me think the condensor and low tension wires WEREN'T the problem, is that when we changed them, we copied exactly the previous set-up (when the car was running fine and before winter storage). But, I guess it is possible my friend helping me (and not me!) may have reversed these wires.

Anyway, sorry for the length, and I really appreciate the help. I'd love to hear any experiences with this plastic cap over/under the wires thing: if anyone has run into this problem.
 
My money's on the incorrect assembly on the points.
I've done it myself (several times)
 
What part of Oregon are you located? If you are located in the Portland area there are members of the Portland Triumph Owners Association (such as me) that can be of aid. You may want to look into becoming a member if not already. Plenty of tech support. Go to portlandtriumph.org.
Mike Crane, club secretary
 
Thanks, Mike. Unfortunately, I'm in no-man's land (Grant's Pass, southern OR). However, by luck I was able to find a mechanic here who is restoring a GT6. I know the mechanic route will break me, but in a pinch at least I have an emergency guy. Thanks to everyone for all the help.
 
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