At 01:24 PM 2/29/96 -0600, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
Needless to say, I am a
>novice working in the engine, so I thought I would turn here for help.
This is certainly the place. What is shocking is that I might be the first
one to reply to this common problem.
>Basically this is what happens: The starter turns and turns and turns but
>the engine makes no indication of firing.
The first thing I do is determine - electrical or fuel. Is there fuel in the
float bowls? This can be checked by removing the three screws and looking in
one of the bowls.
Is there spark? I pull a plug, turn the car over, and look for spark. Plus I
look at the plug to see if the car flooded. If so I pull out and clean all
the plugs, then try to restart.
Unfortunately, there are many reasons why a car may not start, including the
fact it may just not be in the mood (my 65 sometimes would start or not
start by its own whim).
If the fuel system has fuel and the pistons move up and down (one time mine
were stuck causing the car not to start), I sometimes just do a tune up -
replace points, condenser, rotor, and plugs then recheck the timing. That
should cover most causes, its not overly expensive, and it needs to be done
periodically anyway.
I think that is somewhat a throwback to my college days when my best friend,
a Triumph GT-6 owner, told me just to change the points because condensers
"never go bad." It must have been a LBC curse of some kind because I had
many condenser failures in the following years using those reliable Lucas
components. Quite often my car's failure to start was due due just the
condenser (I always carried at least one spare - still do).
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David Councill
dcouncil@imt.net
http://www.imt.net/~dcouncil/home.html
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