A friend of mine had a very similar problem with his Tiger and it turned out to
be the condensor. Jim
Carl McLelland wrote:
> For you technical buffs out there, this one is a stumper for me.
>
> At Sears Point, October 28-29, I had an ignition problem that I'm at a loss
> to resolve. The car is a series 1 Alpine with a series 5 (1725cc) engine, 12
> volt with the polarity reversed to negative ground. The engine is basically
> stock, with Zenith carbs and a Mallory dual point distributor. I'm also
> using a Mallory ballast resistor.
>
> On Saturday, in the rain, temperature around 65 degrees, the car ran
> fantastic, easily attaining 6500rpm in 4'th gear. We finished 2'nd overall.
> On Sunday, on a dry track with the temperature again around 65 degrees, the
> performance was the same until the start of the 3'rd lap. At this point, as
> I was entering turn 1, the engine stopped running..... just as if I had
> turned the ignition off. All attempts at a restart failed.
>
> After the end of the race when the tow truck arrived to tow me in, just for
> kicks, I hit the starter and she came to life as though nothing had ever
> gone wrong. I drove it around to the pits and up onto the trailer.
>
> The next morning I fired it up and drove it off the trailer and into the
> shop. It started right up but the ignition cut out if I tried to take it
> over 2000rpm. The next day I started it and it ran through the entire rpm
> range without hesitation.
>
> The fuel system works fine; no problem here.
>
> The timing was correct.
>
> The ballast resister showed 1 ohm of resistance. The specs for the resistor
> are 0.75 - 1.5 ohms, so no problem here.
>
> I pulled the distributor and removed the points. One set of points showed
> correct point gap and normal pitting for the amount of use. The other set of
> points looked like they had been a plate for arc welding, with the entire
> surface of the points badly pitted and rough. The gap appeared to be
> correct; given the amount of pitting.
>
> I replaced the points, condensor, ballast resistor, timed it and it runs
> perfectly. Further inspection revealed one wire lead from the ballast
> resistor to the coil that "wasn't as tight as I would like (but not falling
> off, either)", which I tightened. Further, I inspected every wire and
> connection between the engine and ground or back through the circuit to the
> ignition/starting switches and no other problems.
>
> Has anybody out there experienced similar problems? What was your cure?
>
> Anybody have any idea what may have gone wrong? I'd sure hate to be at the
> front of the pack again this weekend at Thunder Hill and have a similar
> thing happen.
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Carl McLelland
> email: carlmcle@saturnnet.com
> web: http://carlynneracing.homestead.com/home.html
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