I've been running into one of those streaks.
First the vertical link breaks. Two tows and parts on the
slow boat from California later, I sort that out. The very
first day that I have the car back on the road, the rear
leaf spring breaks. Fortuneatly I have a spare. Unfortuneatly
the spare spring is also broken. Fortuneatly broken on different
leaves so I now have a build-it-yourself spring.
And today - for the third drive in a row - I have more problems
with the car suddenly completely cutting out. This happened
5 or 6 times on the drive home; luckily it restarted each time.
The fact that the electronic tach immediately goes to zero even
though the wheels are still turning the engine makes me think
the problem is electrical in nature. Plus once the car backfired
(just to draw even MORE attention to the stalling sports car).
I can't think of how to test it though since by the time
I get out and set up some tests, the car runs perfectly again.
I checked all the ignition wiring and it seems to be tight and
unbroken. I've also tried jiggling the key (not very scienctific
I know) to see if the ignition switch is good and it seems to
be OK. I have no idea how to test the electronic ignition which
is a 10 year old Allison/Crane unit, but typically they're pretty
reliable so I'm just going to let that go and hope for the time
being.
My number one suspect (opportunity, weapon and motive) is therefore
the ignition coil. It's old and it's probably overdue for
replacement anyhow. One problem: it seemed to act up more
when the car was cold and actually behaved itself the last 6
or 7 miles, I always thought a failing coil would be more
troublesome when hot.
Anyway, my questions (I DO have questions) are:
1)Is there any way for me to test the coil other than swapping it
and driving around for while and hoping I don't break down?
2)Is it OK for me to put a coil from a 72 (non electronic ignition)
spit in for the time being? (all that 6v vs 12v vs ballast resistor
stuff confuses me).
3) Anything else I should look for?
Thanks as always, you guys and gals are great!
Greg Rowe
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