Hello all,
Attended my first car show. The Show of Dreams sponsored by the
British Cars of New Hampshire.
Had a great time. Met several list members. Big thanks to Michael
Fergusson
Almost did not make it. First it was a paperwork screw-up during
registration. The previous owner had the ID # as TSxxxC not TSxxxL.
Now I needed the car to be inspected by a Mass Cop. The car is 1 1/2
hours away in New Hampshire. Finally at 8 PM we got a friend of a
friend to fill out the paperwork. Saturday bright and early travel to one of
the Registry offices open on Saturday, wait for the clerk to see me,
She asks "Where's the title". There is no title. After a little consultation
we determine that the previous owner did not need a title because they
bought the car before the title requirement and did not have it registered
after the requirement went into effect. Now I have plates.
Put the plates on and go for a test drive. Absolutely awful. No power
under acceleration, back fires, misses, and no fun. Drive it into the
garage and put the timing light on it to see if the advance was working.
No blinking from the timing light. Check further. No spark. Finally find
the points are infinite resistance when closed. Put in the old set and
the engine comes to life. Big sigh of relief.
Sunday get up and with friend following behind set off for the show.
Same thing as Saturday. Get to the gas station and the car dies 15
feet from the pump. Get out and check the points. Points are not even
opening. Can't adjust for any gap. My friend goes back and pulls a set
out of his Ginetta and we put them in. Car starts right up and we're off.
Great drive. Blue skies with a nice canopy of white clouds. This is
going to be a great day.
Turn into the show grounds and the engine starts to misbehave and dies.
Push the car the last 300 feet into the parking space and pull the
distributor cap. Time to relax.
Visit the vendors and purchase a set of points.
Visit with the other TRactor owners. Discuss my problems. I think it
was Brian Sanborn who suggested that I might have the wrong coil.
Michael Fergusson had a spare coil in his boot. With the help of
Sumner Weisman I effected a coil transplant. Upon inspection the old
coil was of Japanese manufacture and thus suspect for use in the TR3.
Most probably a coil for a ballasted ignition system. The points were
getting hot from the extra current and melted the plastic spacer block.
The old Ginetta points were a phenolic block and stood up longer.
To finish off the TR3 made it back to the garage in fine shape.
Don't want to repeat this every time out. :-)
Thanks again for the help.
Roger
Roger Colson
57 TR3 TS21383L
sassamon@mediaone.net
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/sassamon/TS21383L
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