I thought I would send out an update related to my post a week ago. I
received a tremendous amount of suggestions, troubleshooting tips, etc.
from many people on the list. With that information in hand I started
troubleshooting and narrowed it down to the rotor or so I hoped. So I
ordered a few new rotors and some other parts that will now be added to
the ever growing collection of tools and parts that live in the trunk of
the car for roadside repairs. I just got the rotor in the mail today
and popped it on as the old one, which actually had less then 500 miles
worth of use was bad. So in the end it turned out to be a $2.50 rotor
that was causing the problem, I did notice pieces of the little plastic
notch had shared off the old rotor.
Anyway the car fired right back. I was actually surprised as I couldn't
believe it turned out to be something so simple.
Thanks for everyone's help it was greatly appreciated.
Chris
Original Message Posted
First let me start by saying I am a beginner/novice when it comes to
cars. So over the weekend while driving my 1970 TR6 home from friends it
just died while on route, always a fun experience. All of sudden the
car jerked a little bit then started to backfire then I felt a loss of
power and then according to my wife some smoke billowed out of the
exhaust.. After fiddling under the hood and attempting to
unsuccessfully to restart the car I had it towed home. Now I'm looking
for some suggestions on how to determine how serious this maybe and some
things to check for.
I'll start with a little history to provide some background info. The
car was sitting on the side of the previous owner's house for about
three years when I bought it a year ago. He did say it was running fine
before he parked it but who knows. Since it was now inoperable my
brother in law towed it to his body shop and we did the following:
Flushed the full lines
Blew out the gas tank
Replaced the fuel pump & fuel filter
Replaced the oil and filter
Changed the spark plugs
Replaced the battery
Once this was complete we were able to get it started and drove it
around the block. After that I had it taken to a local British Mechanic
to give it a once over. He checked the engine compressions etc. and said
overall it's in decent shape. Then I had him perform the following:
Install Oil filter adapter kit
Install clutch slave cylinder per his recommendation
Install points and condenser set - tune everything up
Install new alternator belt - he did say a rebuild would be needed
sometime in the future
Replace various hoses and flush the radiator
Repack front bearing per his recommendation
Since then I have rebuilt one of crabs and have drove the car about a
total of 300 miles or so with no problems to speak of.
So here's what I've done since the weekend to try and get it restarted:
Tried jumpstarting
Fully charged the battery
Confirmed fuel is getting to the crabs
Checked fuel filter
Tinkered with crabs
The cars has turned over a couple of times but died right away and it
back fired. I'm assuming the next logical step might be to check for
spark but then again this is new to me. So that's why I'm now
soliciting suggestions and help on how to go about diagnosing the
problem. I apologize for the length as I know it's long.
Chris Jolly
1970 TR6
jollycj@comcast.net
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