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tahoe healey

tahoe healey

Yoda
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I've been having some "hesitation" or faltering so I replaced points, condenser, and the little wires inside the dizzy. The points had been slipping closed. Got everything tight. Still got the faltering on an 8 mile drive today. As I pulled back into the garage (half in the door as luck would have it) every thing died. No lights, no pump, no second hand on the clock, no power at all. Pushed it in to the garage and tried to start again but nothing. A few minutes later everything worked but ran rough. I checked the points and they were properly open. Coil (3 years old)wasn't particularly hot. I had been thinking fuel line (needles) before I got total loss of power. We are due to take a few hundred mile run in a couple of weeks and now I don't trust her.
Any help for the challenged?
TH
 
Michael Salter
a healeys



.and in the process make very sure that the ground cable
running from the master switch to the body is in very good condition and
attached to a paint free point on the body and that the connector bolt and
the nut on the switch are are tight.
If this cable is a poor conductor the starter current will pass through the
conical spring in the master switch. This causes the spring to get red hot
and loose its temper (springiness). This in turn results in the contacts on
the switch not being pressed together resulting in rapid deterioration of
the contacts and high resistance....i.e. no starts..
I hope this helps
Andrea
 
Are you sure the generator is charging and the battery is up to snuff? Low voltage will cause faltering, not enough voltage to coil. Car sits and battery rebounds. That electric power comes back on its own is a clue. It can be high amps heating up a wire with poor ground is drawing comes back when the wire cools. Check the battery shut-off switch, battery terminals.
 
Thanks for the answers. The switch is 4 years old. The grounding wire has never been touched and the switch terminals needed a 1/4 turn each. The battery is clear of any corrosion. I have volt meter and amp meter installed and there didn't seem to be any problems prior to the incident. These were my original thoughts as well. I was thinking of using jumper cable to by pass the switch if it happens again. If I do, what do I do with the white with black wire? The only place I was goofing with was the dizzy. Is there a chance the faltering and the "death" are related? Any under dash wires that may be grounding that would cause this?
All the trust and confidence I've gained for my BJ8 (aka,Barbie, cause my wife said she gets everything) over the years just went down the drain.
Thanks again!
 
faulty cell in the battery?, as if all power fails its got to be something in the main power circuit, not the coil/points etc
 
That white and black wire on the battery cut off switch is probably the source of your problem. It goes to the coil. This wire tends to fray and gives symptoms of bad coil or points. Remove wire and make sure it is absolutely clean, not broken near the terminal, shorting and in good contact. And, since the ignition switch connects to the coil, lots of other stuff dies too. Next time it fails, check something electrical that is not on the key switch like head lights. If they work and bright, then the battery is good and primary wires are good. The key question is: Is every thing electrical dead or just some things? I'm pretty sure it is the white and black wire. Check on the coil end also. One other thing to check, less likely, but I have had fuses act up. In one case, a US fuse was not right length and vibrate out and not make good contact; broken but not burned fuse gives intermittent problem, also corrosion in fuse box.
 
Andy65 said:
Next time it fails, check something electrical that is not on the key switch like head lights. If they work and bright, then the battery is good and primary wires are good.
Click to expand...
In Rich's first post he said the clock stopped. I'll guess that isn't on the switched circuits. Neither are the lights.
 
As we said, it's either a primary power power problem i.e. battery, cables, battery switch, major ground, engine ground, master fuse all of which should be checked first but he thinks battery and connections are okay. Or, something not getting power to the ignition switch, coil etc. The clock is after market. No telling where it wired. Lights? headlights or dash lights, ignition light or aftermarket interior? Agree, it headlights don't work (and no one put in a relay) then it is not the white black wire. But everything else fits. I hope TH tells us what he finds!
 
Hi Rich,
Maybe this is that ammeter failure Keoke and I were talkin' about. :wink: I doubt it is a short. With the lights (and clock) going out, that would be the un-fused brown wire. In which case, you would have smoked the harness. Check where you've worked recently. Wires to the ammeter and starter solenoid.
 
Andy65 said:
The clock is after market. No telling where it wired.
Click to expand...
I would venture to say it isn't on the white switched circuit since it would then need to be set every time the car was started.
 
Clock works when ever the main switch is on as does the radio. Everything is fine now which is a problem cause it will happen again. If it had stayed off the finding the problem would be easier. The lights are on a relay and work fine now. The spaghetti behind the dash has always been suspicious as a source of shorts. The amp meter and volt meter are working fine. The battery is 8-9 years old but measures well in all the cells except one cell which is just a little down in acid. No corrosion at the terminals. Tomorrow I will investigate all the suggestions.
Many thanks to all.
 
tahoe healey said:
The battery is 8-9 years old but measures well in all the cells except one cell which is just a little down in acid. No corrosion at the terminals. Tomorrow I will investigate all the suggestions.
Many thanks to all.
Click to expand...

Replace the battery. I don't know of any battery meant to last 8 or 9 years....
 
Here is what I found and did. I tightened all the groundings and checked all wires going through any metal (fire-wall). Charged and filled (distilled water only 1/8 below tell-tail) battery. Test drove. No power shut down. Still got falter randomly. Checked the timing which had been done in June before the Jackson meet. This was interesting cause it had advanced to 25 BTDC. (remember the points had closed before all this started)I reset everything. I had previously tried to rock the dizzy to check the bearings with no play(cold). After a 20 minute drive I checked the timing and it was erratic. When I tried to move the cam, I could get a small bit of movement(hot). I guess I need a dizzy re-builder. There was one mentioned a few months ago. Does anyone remember who he was?Anyone have any thoughts? I need to do a drive which is 250 miles round trip. Think I will have any problems as this hesitation has been going on for years?
Thanks a million times,
Rich
 
tahoe healey said:
Clock works when ever the main switch is on as does the radio. Everything is fine now which is a problem cause it will happen again. If it had stayed off the finding the problem would be easier. The lights are on a relay and work fine now. The spaghetti behind the dash has always been suspicious as a source of shorts. The amp meter and volt meter are working fine. The battery is 8-9 years old but measures well in all the cells except one cell which is just a little down in acid. No corrosion at the terminals. Tomorrow I will investigate all the suggestions.
Many thanks to all.
Click to expand...

Just curious.
What exactly do you mean "battery is 8-9 years old but measures well in all the cells except one cell which is just a little down in acid"?

Are you just looking at level, or actually measuring specific gravity?
If specific gravity, what are the readings?
Adding water is good, but generally on an older vehicle and battery, I charge tham overnight and re-check the specific gravity before driving them.
You diluted the acid, and the capacity, by adding water, which is okay, but if you still have a generator, takes a while to bring it back.
I use batteries to 8 years, and get very good service out of Interstates for 8 years.
BUT:

You're driving an old car with it's own attitude.

I would not go over 8 years, I would simply change out the battery.

On your points.....did you use cam lube?

I still have my wrinkled old tube of the stuff.

Were your points going further open or further closed in use?

Dave
 
Hi Tahoe,
You have had this intermittent problem for a long time. If your timing moved that far then there is certainly something wrong
with your distributor. ( edited out reference to the timing chain slipping because the timing would jump to a further retarded position, not further advanced as Tahoe stated ).
To eliminate your 8 -9 year old battery as contributing to your problems, Put the volt meter across the two posts. Exactly what voltage do you measure right now ?
The next time it acts up, check the voltage again ? Is it the same each time 12.7 to 12.8 volts ? If yes, it is not your battery ( but I also would not expect a 9 year old battery to still be working right ).
The way to fix large complex problems on your Healey or any machine, is to repair all of the small problems that you do know about and then just like magic, the big problems will take care of themselves.
Fix the distributor and check the battery voltage and replace the battery if it will not hold a charge at 12.7 - 12.8 volts and then see if he problem goes away. If not, disconnect the brown and white wire from the coil connector and bypass the battery switch to see if it is causing any problems. As someone else has said, a high ohm fuse ( not blown ) is a hard problem to diagnose. Good luck... Ed
 
TOC, points were closing. It was a check for specific gravity and was okay in all but one cell which was just a little low before water and charging.
Ed, I have a volt meter below the dash and it reads same as always (about 12.5 to 13) I look for sameness cause the needle has always been that high. I'll use a "real" volt meter on it tomorrow after it charges longer.
What is confusing is the timing. I've never heard of anything like this before. Does anyone recommend a dizzy re-builder?
 
I have used The Distributor Doctor in England.
He knows his distributors.
Timing changes can only come by cam moving in relation to crank, timing pointer moving, gear slipping (but that's internal, not on the end of the distributor shaft), points, or possibly the mechanical advance going south.
 
:savewave:

Just put the points and the battery in the trash can and everthing will be fine. :laugh:

OH !!be sure and replace the points with a Negative ground Pertronix --Keoke
 
Keoke, where have you been? I was about to ask in anyone had heard from you. I meant to do that yesterday but forgot due to all the Healey problems. I've been worried about you as you haven't posted in a while. I'm probably dumping the battery but I'm sending the dizzy to Advanced.
 
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