Re: Car Quitting

Posted by Glen Weilbaker on September 01, 1998 at 10:48:12

In Reply to: Car Quitting
posted by Mark Earl on September 01, 1998 at 09:49:10

: I have a 1930 Roadster that has ran perfectly up until last weekend.I started it up and pulled it out of the garage to wash it.When I went to start it again it wouldn't start.I determined that there wasn't any power getting to the distributor at all. I took it all apart and found that the wire running from the lower plate to the upper plate was looseon the lower plate.I soldered this and reassembled it.Thecar started right up.Last weekend I was on my way to a show and the car just quit.No big backfire or anything like that, it just quit.I took apart the distributor to check the wire I had soldered and it was fine.I reassembled it, and the car started right up.I quit twice more about five minutes apart.I took the distributor apart and just snapped the points openand shut.Again it started right up.It got me home the 60 some miles I had to go without quitting but I haven't tried it since.Oh, I should also mention that after fixing it the first time, it backfired loudly while driving but didn't quit and it hasn't done it since.Any ideas??Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
:
: Mark
Mark,
Sounds like you have open somewhere because it runs after you tinker with it.
First, check the wire from the points to the bottom plate, good insulation and not broken internally due to flexing.
Make sure the connection to the condenser is not shorting out, the screw/washer that ties the lower plate tang to the condenser.
Last but not least, the armored cable could be giving you your new found joy. The insulation can break down and short to the armor housing and or the conductor could be intermittent. Easy way to check this is to run a jumper from the coil + terminal to the points where the armor goes into the distributor body bypassing the cable altogether.
Good luck and check back with what you find,
GW

Follow Ups:
Re: Car Quitting John Dauphiny September 11, 1998 at 12:17:05(0)

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