--WebTV-Mail-14849-1704
John---Let's do the easy things first. Since most gauges and even the
radio will operate with less than perfect battery contact, or charge,
it's good to establish that the battery posts are clean, and the cables
making good contact at both ends. (a volt meter, if handy, can tell the
battery condition quickly.) It should read around 12.5V Random
starting indicates that the battery itself is good.
Less likely, is that the (heavy) wire contact at the starter terminal is
poor, but worth a check.
Turn on the headlghts, preferrably in an area that you can see them
shining, or reflecting. Hit the starter switch. If they fade out
completely, and the engine doesn't spin, the starter motor could be bad,
and absorbing all the voltage.
If the engine doesn't spin, turn off the key. Put the tranny in (any)
gear, and push the car a few feet. Try to start it again. (This is a
long shot)
To see if it's the ignition switch itself causing the no-spin, take it
out of gear, turn the key to normal running position, and "jump" to the
starter motor.
Can you push-start the car when this randomness shows up?
Most of this is assuming that when you turn the ignition key to the
start position, you get nothing, not simply a no-start, as a random
no-start involves some other areas. Get back to us, please, when you
find out the cause, so we can all add your experiences to our own.
Dick T.
CF11143
--WebTV-Mail-14849-1704
Content-Disposition: Inline
Received: from mailsorter-101-2.iap.bryant.webtv.net (209.240.198.96) by
storefull-285.iap.bryant.webtv.net with WTV-SMTP; Mon, 21 Feb 2000
12:54:26 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <6pack-owner@autox.team.net>
Received: from triumph.cs.utah.edu (triumph.cs.utah.edu [155.99.188.52]) by
mailsorter-101-2.iap.bryant.webtv.net (8.8.8-wtv-e/ms.dwm.v7+dul2)
with ESMTP id MAA03752; Mon, 21 Feb 2000 12:54:25 -0800 (PST)
Received: (from majordom@localhost) by triumph.cs.utah.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) id
NAA18710 for 6pack-outgoing; Mon, 21 Feb 2000 13:47:32 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <38B1A450.35C9@bellsouth.net>
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 15:47:15 -0500
From: John Summers <trumpet@bellsouth.net>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01-C-BLS20 (Macintosh; U; PPC)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: 6pack@autox.team.net
Subject: Ignition
Sender: owner-6pack@autox.team.net
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: John Summers <trumpet@bellsouth.net>
Hey folks, I sent this to the Triumphs list and will ask the 6 packers
also. Today I went to my "only driver" '74 TR 6 and when I cranked it
to start notices a hesitation when I turned the key. I shut it off and
when I tried to restart got nothing. Well, the guages worked and the
radio worked but no fire got to the engine but nothing clicked under the
hood. After I checked all the connections I found that the car would
start randomly, like one out of every ten attempts. When it did fire it
did so quite normally and ran fine, just did so randomly.
This sounds like an ignition switch problem to me, how about to you
folks?
John Summers
Jacksonville, FL
--WebTV-Mail-14849-1704--
|