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TR2/3/3A TR3 missing

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ffh

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I have a 62 TR3 that I have owned since new. An every day driver it has been with me and my family on many bases and also in England when I was posted there with the RAF. The car has been garaged for the past 18 months and recently put back on the road. New points,plugs, condenser,rotor,distributer cap, plug wires,coil,new carb springs and float valves as well as air filter, lube,oil change etc. Running high test 93 no ethanol gas,two tanks cycled through. After driving for an hour at a steady 55 the engine starts to miss and climbing a modest hill in 4th the engine starts to chug and lose power. My mech and I are out of ideas. Any suggestions?
 
Did you check the compression when it does this? Are you sure the valve lash is not too tight? Fuel delivery could be an issue too.
 
compression is good on all four. New fuel pump and checking the carbs fuel is evident on both. valves have not been adjusted
 
New condensor and coil should mean that those parts are above suspicion but your description could be something that starts to fail as heat sets in and those 2 come to mind. If you saved the old parts for spares you might try a swap -- in particular the coil is a quick along the road swap once the problem occurs as you can just bungee it in alongside the current coil close enough to move the wires over.
 
That could be a weak spark, so next time it does it, quickly change the coil and see if it cures it.

I don't know what make of coil you use over there, but recently I've had four Lucas coils fail. 2 because the oil leaked out and they overheated and two because, although they were labelled 12 Volts, they were the type that needs a ballast resistor. Stupidly I'd forgotten that the ammeter needle showing excessive discharge was a clue. It should barely move when you switch ignition on.

The quality of a lot of classic car parts is dire IMO. I've just had a brand new rotor fly apart too. The brass bit flew off the top and trashed the cap in the process.

Ash
 
I second what Geo said. A brand new condenser gave me the symptoms you are describing. I put the old one back in and the problems went away.
So much for quality spare parts...
 
Will try a new different condenser. The new coil is a lucas sport coil and switching back to the old coil didn't do anything. changed the new red rotor to and old style rotor with no difference.
 
What are you timing the engine with? Are you sure you have enough advance at road speed? Try rotating the distributor clockwise a little at a time and re test at speed.
 
What happens if you take your foot off the throttle for a moment and then press down again? Does it pull smoothly for a few seconds and then go back to missing/chugging? If so, I would suspect a fuel delivery problem.
 
Along the lines of a fuel delivery problem, leave the gas cap loose and see if the problem goes away. Lots of creatures down south that will crawl into a vent line and make a nest or just plain die and prevent air from getting into the tank.

Happened in my dad's boat,Port St. Lucie, FL. after it was parked for a year.

mike
 
Hello ffh,
I had the exact problem with my TR3A. Went through everything numerous times: fuel system from tank to carbs; Ignition from wiring to distributor to coil. No help. Would run great for about an hour then started mis-firing. Finally, one day after 'the hour', the car just died. As in dead. Had to have it towed home. In trouble shooting the next morning (still dead) I pulled an older style rotor from my MGA (which doesn't have the little metal retainer plate as a shaft keeper), and it fired right up. The bad one was new. Moss has been advertizing the "heavy duty" rotor claiming its made of more electrically resistant material, or some such claim. Hope this helps
 
He says he has a "red" one,
Take it from that it was a "Advance Dizzy" one
 
I'd look to mike_h's suggestion, too. :wink:
 
Had something similar to my car last week. Turns out a spark plug wire for the #4 cylinder burned through where it attaches to the distributor cap. Plug wires were almost new, but not of the "real" wire variety. They were more modern and high performance!

Here is an easy check:

Pull each of your spark plug wires, but reinstall lightly on the plugs. Start up the engine, and with a pair of pliers with coated handles, or something similar, pull each plug wire. You'll find the cylinder that is not firing quite easily this way. Then trouble shoot from there- wires, plugs, cracked distributor cap, etc.

Then there is the possiblity of a clogged jet in one of your carbs, etc. but chances are it is electrical.

Good luck! Jeff
 
The most likely scenario is that you just started breaking in the points and they need to be readjusted. If the points Heel wasn't perfectly square to the point cam, they would wear very quickly which will retard the timing and lose power - giving the exact side effects you're experiencing.

Check point gap is at .016-.017".
Time the engine at 10 BTDC at idle.
Check and adjust valve lash if this doesn't get you running better.
 
And believe it or not, the brand new Lucas points that I bought from TRF years ago for my Spitfire restoration were defective from the start. Luckily, my neighbor was a plant engineer and old school mechanic and told me where my problem lay. Sourced a new set of different brand (not Lucas) and car fired right up. That was 20+ years ago. I finally replaced those points and condenser a few months ago after the car started running like crap. I think they are some fairly pricey Delco points.
 
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