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Thoughts on a long traffic Light

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Joe Schlosser

Joe Schlosser

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Ok here is the scenario
Took 60 BE, 1275 and points ignition, out for a noonish drive.
Drove about 15 miles and was heading back into town to gas station.
Sitting at what seemed to be a long TL waiting for left turn, at least a minute sitting
Car not in gear, and idling about 1000. Oil 30psi, water 190
Then engine just stops and will not restart.
Push to side of road into parking lot (lucky here)
Check out under bonnet, nothing seemed to be out of place.
Fuel pump is clicking.
Engine wants to start and finally does after almost catching several times
Keep the revs up and head home, 4 miles.
Coil felt very warm to the touch , or could not touch
Cannot remember age or brand of coil. Had similar issue some 20 years back with a coil that would just cut out after a bit.
Probably put this one form spares back then.​
Let everything sit for about an hour.
Engine starts on first hit, idles and revs. Oil / water good
Diagnosis is old coil has a internal fault that occurs when gets hot. Maybe I hit one too many bump.
New coil to be ordered????
 
Or perhaps vapor lock. Are carb shields in place, gas line not too close to the exhaust pipe. I’d suspect coil as well but make sure some other Underwood condition is not causing an issue that could be a simple fix
 
Coils run hotter than you might expect.

If you have not already done so, check the points gap as they may have closed up a bit.
 
Thanks guys
Doing full look see tomorrow,
The wierd thing is that it just stopped. There was no missing or any other warning.
It was hard to start after but got me home and then fired as soon as I hit started an hour later.
 
If it is the coil,

A year or so ago, I switched to a Bosch Blue Coil -Jeff Schlemmer at Advanced Distributors swears by them (but can't get them) There is a bizarre conversation here about them and what constitutes a 'real' coil:

https://www.ratwell.com/technical/BlueCoil.html

It has transformed my engine.
 
I cannot see anything that seems to be out of place. Point gap is correct although The shaft needed a little lube.
The header wrap is still in place as is the heat shield.
Took it out, started right up, ran good , gas station and back, No problems.
My coil is a rather faded Bosch blue.
I hate when something like this happens
 
In your first post you asked about the coil vibrating too much and possibly breaking. If the coil you started with was the Bosch Blue it is unlikely to have failed from vibration as they are epoxy filled. That said, I did have an old Blue Coil fail but it did not totally die. Mine started misfiring above 3500 RPM. The car still ran OK but you could see the misfire in the behavior of the electronic tach.

Since the engine is behaving again, all I would do is go through all the low tension wiring and make sure nothing is loose or corroded. Also, make sure to check the condition of any wire between the breaker plate and the dizzy housing as that is the ground path. Failure of that internal wire forces current to flow through the rotating breaker plate which can cause problems.
 
Doug
Nothing about any vibration. I was just sitting at a long light and it just shut off.
It was my first time at a long TL in a long time with this motor.
All the LT wires are new as I had a Pertronix system fail and replaced it with points. Dizzy is a 23D.
I will make sure everything is tight and make some new LT wires with solder connections.
Yes it could be a bad wire on the points but that is difficult to trouble shoot.
Right now engine pulls easy to 5K. No miss, no nothing
 
Sorry. I interpreted your comment in post #1 about "one too many bumps" as a reference to vibration. My mistake.

You said that you are running a 23D distributor. With no vacuum advance the 23D breaker plate is solid and doesn't rotate... so there won't be the internal ground wire I mentioned in my last post. I have run out of educated guesses.

I hope it continues to run well for you and doesn't repeat the problem.
 
Doug
Thanks
Lets hope. I never had any issue before.
I am aware of the skinny little ground wire on the vacuum advance distributors and I know where you are coming from their.
I will also check out my wires to the ignition circuit and see if anything may be loose (time for the soldering iron on connectors)
 
If it were me I'd replace the condenser. If it overheats and shorts out, no spark. Cools down and goes back to being fine until the next time it overheats. Condensers are notorious for failing, I've had brand new ones be faulty from the factory. If you have the failure again first check for spark, if none, disconnect the condenser and try again. The car can be run for short periods without a condenser it will just cause accelerated pitting of the points but at least you can get home.
 
Changing the condenser is a good idea. It doesn't cost much. Just don't throw out the old one immediately as sometimes new condensers are DOA.
 
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