Just read my e-mails and the "Digest" where John Brubaker talked about his
hard starting problem. I believe that I would start with the ignition
system. If his TR250 still has the original points and condensor setup, I
would check for proper point gap and clean, non-pitted points as well as
replace the condensor. As points age, the rubbing blocks wears on the
distributor cam causing the point gap and consequently the dwell angle to
change, and the spark to both weaken and the ignition timing to change.
Also, because there is a fair amount of current transferring across the
points, they become pitted with metal tranferring from one side to the
other, and after a while they don't make very good contact any more. Also,
I say to change the condensor because they can fail without warning. Before
I switched to the Crane optically trigerred ignition, I always carried a
spare condensor. Now I carry both a condensor and a new set of points, in
case the Crane unit fails! In any event, it can appear that you are getting
an okay spark when you test it by jumping a gap, but if the dwell angle
and/or timing is off, if there is excessive resistance across the points, or
if the condensor has failed you will have a starting problem. Particularly
in cold weather.
Rex Townsend
69 TR6 CC26713L
P.S. Make sure that your coil is hooked up correctly on the low voltage
side. That is, the "+ " terminal to the wiring harness, and the "-"
terminal to the wire that goes to the points. It will worked hooked up
backwards, but deliver a lower voltage spark. On my Lucas sports coil, it
means that the wire that goes to the distributor connects to the terminal
farthest from the distributor, and the wire that goes to the wiring harness
connects to the terminal closet to the distributor.
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