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Sooo close!!!

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oh, and in my case, it was the carb - i was able to take it to a shop and they set it up apart from the engine - no towing! also, when you are close, you should be able to have the distributor snug but not tight. then you can move it while the engine is being turned over. this is how mine started - I then tightened it in place (of course, not insulting your intelligence if you know this)
 
Ahhhhh I see thanks for the help everyone some very good tips. At least it gives me some new things to try. JP I agree I think it was my carb initially giving it too much gas now I need to figure out that spark issue before I can proceed with any other testing. And don't worry about "not insulting your intelligence if you know this" assume I know nothing. This whole car has been a "learn as you go" experience. With all this advise i'm bound to stumble in the right direction eventually..... right?

Jack, how can I tell if the feed wire is grounding out? I know that there are two wires going to the contact plate spring bolt. One is a copper wire with no insulation and the other is the wire from the capacitor with insulation. Both of them have little plates on the end that I attached to the spring/nut end of the contact palte spring. Should these two wires be touching? I have them mounted on top of one another and connectedto the spring with a bolt.When the ignition switch is on If I touch the test light to the distributor and ground to the engine the bulb lights regardless of the points open or closed. No matter where on the distributor I place the lead. Does that mean its grounding out? Again sorry for my ignorance.

Thanks,
Roger
 
One wire is from the condencer, the terminal should be away from the side of the dizzy.

The other wire, has a black fuzzy cover on it I expect goes from the coil through the side of the dizzy to the points. In fact both go to the points. Terminal should not touch anything else.

If you have not had the points out just eyeball them, If points have been out I wonder if you put the wires back in correctly. ie the plastic color is supose to insulate the terminals on both wires so that they only feed the one side of the points not both.

The other off the top of my head is. are the points closed all the time or open all the time. Do they make and break.
 
Hey Jack,
The points do make a break when I turn the shaft they open and close the wires have me concerned since you said that one "has a fuzzy coating" that wire has no coating just bare wire it goes from the entry point of distributor to the contact on the points along with the condensor wire you speak of. I'll need to check and make sure the wires are not touching the spring in any way. I belive that may be it. I wasn't sure where the plastic thing went so I think it is grounding out. I'll check when I get home and give you all an update. I'll try to take a pic for you all to view to just to make sure. Thank god a starting point... no pun intended!
 
Hooper11772 said:
I also used a test light to wait till the points were open and test the contact plate to the block to insure continuity that looked good however I noticed wen the points were not open it also had continuity and the bulb lit.... Is that right? I got that out of the haynes manual to test the low voltage circuit.
Click to expand...
No that's not right.
When the points close, they should be grounded. Clean the points with a small fingernail file, then wipe clean with paper.
 
My thoughts. The wire that is from the condencer has a plastic coating on it for insulation.

The other wire should also be insaluted. The orginal was a black fuzzy stuff but that is not important. The important part is that it be insulated. It should touch nothing in route.

You should not have continuity whwn the points are open. Something is grounded and I expect it is the bare wire. Try a bit of electrations tape on it then run your test again.

Standing by.
 
Roger - Check your voicemail. Erica and I will be by Tuesday after work to help you out. We'll bring some spares.
 
Good move Chris, let us know what the exact prob was please.
 
Thank god... I have spark back. You were right Jack I was grounding out the codensor wire on the spring. When I re installed the new points I forgot one of the plastic insulators on the post that connects to the spring. As a result my wireies were grounding to the post and to the base of distributor.

I'm looking forward to Chris coming over this evening. After I got spark back last night I set the timing by using a video from university motors on you tube. It involved setting the crank pulley to 10 degrees BTDC. and disconnecting the negative lead to the distributor. I than placed a test light on one lead on the distributor and the other lead to positive. I turned the distributor until the light just went out. At that point It should be timed according to Johnathan Twiss. Turned it over while spraying starter fluid and no dice not even a puff.

I also checked compression on the cylinders and they were all within the 120-150 psi range after 10 rotations.

Sooooo. I have spark (again), Compression (tested), Gas (starter fluid) If Chris figures this out I will be forever grateful because i'm at a loss. I'm also throwing in a steak dinner for his troubles.
 
Could the Dizzy still be 180 degrees out?
 
It must be. That's all that's left.
 
Yesssss!!!!!!!!
We have take off! Chris came over last night to take a look at the car and give me a hand. After looking at the spark with the bosch plugs I ordered from Moss he suggested I go with the NGK's since the spark looked weak. I ran down to Autozone and wound up grabbing a set of autolite's since they had no NGK's in stock. The spark looked better but still weak. Thats when Chris noticed the starter was arching! As a result the engine was not turning over quick enough causing me to not get the spark or revolutions I needed. Once we removed the starter and tightened the bolts that run through it. It was no longer loose. We reinstalled and got it running on Chris's distributor and carbs. We then swapped out the carbs and dist. with mine and it fired right up again. All I can say is thank god for Chris and Roy!

Still a couple of issues I need to work out. Once we got it running we noticed a leak in one of the freaze plugs on the block. I'll need to replace that. I was hoping to get it in for this weekend but am having a hard time sourcing one locally. Any suggestion? Are there any other freaze plugs that I can use in it's place that are more common? I also need to swap out the oil with a heavier weight. The novice in me put in the wrong kind Chris suggested some that i'll pick up today and swap out tonight. I'll keep you all posted and as soon as I have audio/video i'll post. Thanks everyone!
 
<span style="font-weight: bold"> </span> BOO-YAH!!!
Way to go Chris and Roger. Great to see the little engine is alive and well. Great going guys!
Roy :cheers: :bow:
 
WOOHOO!
 
Wow, who would have thought.
 
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