Hi,
Well, I'd love to send another "snappy answer" to your query, but from a
quick scan of the list, these have been taken care of. So I'll offer some
tidbits by way of a recent experience of mine.
>From the information in your message, I can't even figure out if the
motor is turning over when you turn the ignition switch. If not, well,
your problem is starter related. Pretty obvious, huh?
Now, you measured 13.5 volts - but you did not specify where. Presuming
that you measured a battery connection under no load - this would
indicate a battery that has 6.75 cells... as a 12 volt battery should
measure - well - 12 volts when the charging system is off. In otherwords,
I'd say your voltmeter is suspect.
Okay - so we've proved nothing at this point. Sorry.
Anyway, the next step after getting the car to turn over is try to
determine if there is any spark. Now, some later Triumphs used a CD type
ignition (CD for Capacitive Discharge). I'm not sure how the ignition
"box" on a TR8 works, but early electronic boxes can have "issues" if you
try the "old" methods like pulling a plug wire (or the coil wire) from
the distributor cap and seeing if you can see any spark present. A better
way to test this would be to use a spare spark plug, suitably grounded of
course as you would then be imitating the entire electrical circuit for
the high-voltage part of you ignition.
Warning - there is a lot of voltage present in the high-voltage section
of the ignition system. If you elect to hold or touch any of the
components during your "test", you may wind up being a better path to
ground than the ignition system - in other words, you'll say "Ouch!" if
you're lucky and you'll require a defibrilator if you're not so lucky.
The above sounds funny enough - but a high voltage shock and all the
wrong circumstances, and you can be dead if you screw up.
Anyway - If there's a sparc present - you're halfway done finding your
solution. If not - check the voltage at the + side of the coil and then
the - side of the coil. No voltage at either point requires invesitgation.
If there is voltage to and from the coil and there's no spark, then you
need to suspect the triggering mechanism (points/condensor) or magentic or
optical pickup) or the coil itself. Also, you could have a bad coil wire,
for instance. There's even the potential of the "really goofy" stuff like
the rotor is cracked and the high voltage is returning to ground through
the crack. Likewise for carbon tracks inside the distributor cap.
Once you've determined that sparc is present, then you need to look into
fuel issues. Make sure there's gas in the tank... don't automatically
trust the gauge! I like to pull a fuel line from a carb and see that fuel
is flowing there. Again - please be safe and have a fire bottle handy
"just in case".
If there's fuel flowing to carbs and there's sparc present... it should
run. It's as simple as that.
Now for my stupid Triumph owner story.
Last week at a race on my last run, my motor started running a bit
strangely. It did not seem to want to idle, but would run at 1500 and
above. I made my last run and then drove the car back to the paddock -
loosing power the whole way. When I was ready to load the car on the
trailer, I couldn't event get it started. The motor turned over okay, so
I knew I had power and the starter was working.
I pulled out my dwell meter - 45 degrees of dwell. Not optimal, but
"close enough". I pulled a sparc plug wire (I run a points system), and
there was spark at the plugs. Hmmmm. Pulled a fuel line - lots of gas at
the carbs. Hmmmm. Back to the ignition. I put on my timing light (having a
1/2 ton van with all the "support stuff" comes in handy from
time-to-time.) I could see spark - but it _seemed_ to be intermittent.
Now, instead of following my above "flow chart", I wound up merely
loading the car on the trailer and dragging it home. I then proceeded to
immediately start thinking that my timing chain had skipped or something
evil like that.
Any way, I decided to methodically check everything. What I found was
that my condenser was bad. At the track, it was "going bad" - in my
garage - it CROAKED. I put in a new condenser and VROOMM. Started right up.
Well, there was that "lapse" when I left the ignition switch on while I
went out to get something from the support vehicle. Anyway, leaving the
ignition on with the ballast resistor jumpered out of the circuit for 20
or 30 minutes caused the coil to get hot enough to _explode_. No harm
done but about a pint of "coil oil" blowing all over the engine bay.
Well, and a "wallet factor" of $30 or so for a new coil...
But anyway - I hope this helps you solve your problem. If not, I at least
hope you were entertained.
Speaking of which - several of the web sites for the ignition guys (like
www.msdignition.com) have troubleshooting sections.
I also find it somewhat handy to have an entire ignition system's worth
of parts "ready to go", just in case. This means that as soon as I
recieve the parts from the UPS man, I put them in the car _one at a time_ to
make sure they work properly before I make up my "roadside kit". This
"kit" has saved me on the side of the road a number of times in the past.
Maybe I'll write about that sometime...
rml
TR6's
P.S. BTW, all of my above stuff in my race car is "american made" (Wires
from Napa (I made my own wiring harness) Mallory dual point dizzy, Accel
wires and plugs... well, not British, anyway) and parts fail. So, your
experience is not limited to British cars by any means.
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