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TR2/3/3A Timing ?

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tinman58

tinman58

Jedi Knight
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I have a TR3 with a little modifications. 89mm pistons, cam, roller rockers, headers and a super charger. I have had a problem keeping the timing set. It was running nice a little pinging so I advanced the timing just a couple clicks.... Car ran like crap missing popping sputtering.. re set back a couple clicks still ran like crap. Replaced the distributer with a brand new one. Started right up idle nice. Took it on the road CRAP... Put on the timing light and got sporadic spark from all cylinders.. Changed coil idea nice then crap??????? Any ideas??
 
Mine did that too. Changed the points and condenser, checked vacuum, re-balanced the carbs a 100 times, changed the coil, regap the plugs, changed the plugs then replaced the points with Petronics. That lasted the longest. On the way to the TRFs Summer party weeks later it started again. Even stalls out or just quits. Luckily it happened the 3rd time at dark and had someone else try to start it while I was under the bonnet and noticed a little sparking at A1 connection on the voltage regulator. Very loose so I pinched the female terminal slid it back on and never had a problem after that.
 
Just went out and checked the wires. They are tight, but pulled cover off and found one of the diodes fried. (New style electronic regulator). Gonna order a new one tonight.
Thank You Marv
 
With all that other fruit and you are still running a generator? I would go to an alternator.

Graham
 
It does have a alternator came with the super charger.
 
I am curious...if you had a little pinging, why would you advance the distributor? Pinging is the sign that you have to much advance.

When you say sporadic spark, do you mean inconsistent spark, or inconsistent timing of the spark?
 
I tried everything... advance -retard advance retard etc.... There would be spark then no spark. cylinders 2 and 3 would not spark at all. Then I would touch something and boom all is good. Then for no reason boom back to crap..
 
Based on your last post...I would give the wire from the coil to the points a good look over. It sounds like a short in that wire...or a bad set of points that are grounding. Next guess would be condenser...followed by the coil.
 
I had a simular problem and i think it turned out to be suspect points and the screw that sets the points was too long and locking onto the mounting plate any way i changed out the points and condensor and it all came good

Graham
 
All brand new dizzy with Petronix. Swapped out two coils, checked all wiring at the dizzy. To make things more fun the fuel pump went bad on our TR 250. Gonna call BPNW and order new parts this morning. The weather is getting nice.
 
Do a search for "petronix" here on the forum. It's a great system...in theory. In reality it seems to cause more problems than a stock set of points.
 
Sounds like it could be a distributor problem.
What make of distributor did you fit.
I found that Pertronix parts can be problematical...relatively inexpensive, but not the best quality.
Have you contemplated a different electronic ignition system.
 
I chased a miss I had and changed all kinds of stuff like you did, and it turned out to be the plug wires. I used some of those plastic Lucas connectors that screw onto the end of the wirer at the plug. Evidently they can go bad by creating resistance.
 
I just got the package with the new regulator from BPNW. This had to be the problem.... I installed the new one cleaned the wires and all is good. The TR started right up, set the timing raved it up sounds great. Got my wallet and off for a ride to to grocery store. I did not even get up the drive way, running like crap! Got it back in the garage and put the timing light back on, same problem #1 sporadic and #3 the same. Turned the engine off and went to the grocery store in the TR250. New dizzy new petronix new coil new spark plug wires and new regulator. ????
 
I think the main problem here is that you are just replacing parts instead of troubleshooting the problem logically. You already know WHERE the problem is (#1 and #3 plugs); you just need to figure out WHAT it is. You say you have new wires, so, you are ruling them out, but it wouldn't be the first set of defective wiring sent to a customer. You need to look for arcing around the distributor, high-voltage wiring, and plugs (easiest in the dark), try new wires for those cylinders, take a close look at the contacts, pull the plugs and make sure they are not fouled, and try new ones anyway. Messing around with timing or unrelated things like the voltage regulator is not likely to help; they just don't affect what you are seeing. Similarly, if the coil were bad, it would affect all the plugs, not just #1 and #3. So that is not likely to be the problem.

The fact that it runs OK and suddenly starts to misbehave implies that there is a bad connection, or something similar, which gets broken and reconnected accidentally as you work on something else. Look CAREFULLY at the connectors at both the cap, and make sure they are getting ALL the way down into the hole and making good metal-to-metal contact. Do the same at the plugs; make sure there is tight metal contact. Pull the #1 and #3 wires and make sure you are getting a strong spark to a ground point; if so, the wire may be OK and the plug bad.

Once, when I had a similar problem, it turned out that the DPO had used the wrong connector for the center of distributor cap, and the wire was just barely contacting the metal connection in the cap. That's the kind of thing you are looking for
 
after a few hours under the dash checking wires and fixing a few funky connections with no better results. I removed the brand new dizzy and installed the old old dizzy, (not the one that started this mess) The one that was with the car when I got it. The TR started right up and runs very nice. So I am assuming that the petronix on both of the new dizzy's are bad. Is there a way to check this?
 
Replace with quality electronic ignition...not Pertronix.
As a matter of interest, was the distributor cap supplied by Pertronix?
 
I don't know if BPNW installs the petronius or if it all comes from the supplier that way. I am going to call BPNW tomorrow and either get a replacement or just get points and a condenser.
 
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