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RE: Help, please, it won't fire a lick!

To: "Robert Blubaugh" <RobBlubaugh@netscape.net>, <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Subject: RE: Help, please, it won't fire a lick!
From: "Randall Young" <Ryoung@navcomtech.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 21:03:37 -0800
Robert Blubaugh wrote :
> It was quite rough due to
> needed carb adjustments.  Several short dirves with different
> carb adjustments were bringing it around

Just out of curiosity Rob, what are you using for carbs ?  Setting the stock
SUs at warm idle should be fine, no driving required, unless you've made
modifications elsewhere.  Racing cam, perhaps ?

> Surely an occasional arc through the
> plug gap would at least cause a cylinder to fire or at least back
> fire or sputter.  I GET NOTHING!
>      This is really frustrating, but I won't give up!!  TS7690
> WILL RUN AND DRIVE AGAIN!!  Any suggestions for additional things
> to try would be appreciated.
>      Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Some thoughts :

What are the voltages on the coil terminals with the points closed ?  Just
flashing a light isn't good enough.

What coil are you using ?  If it's some high performance, externally
ballasted coil, a few short drives around the block may well have been
enough to toast those new points.

Have you tried swapping for a "known good" condenser ?  Ideally, one that
you've seen run ... brand new ones are sometimes bad, and your symptoms
sound a whole lot like a bad condenser.  BTW, there's no point in trying it
without a condenser ... it simply will not run without one.

Have you double-checked the phasing of the distributor ?  Turn the engine to
TDC and check that the rotor is pointing directly towards the #1 (or #4)
terminal in the dizzy cap.  If it's halfway in-between terminals, the spark
may not make it across.

If you were at least occasionally getting a backfire, I'd suspect the dizzy
is timed 180 degrees out (ie pointing to #1 when #4 is ready to fire).

Have you checked for spark directly at the coil HT terminal ?  Could be a
bad wire from the coil to the cap, especially if you used carbon core wires.

You didn't mention trying several different rotors ... there seems to have
been a rash of bad rotors in recent years and failures are very difficult to
detect visually.  The definitive symptom of a bad rotor is spark at the coil
(with the HT lead to the dizzy removed), but no spark at any plug wire.

Randall





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