thehackmechanic
Well-Known Member
And... it's alive
I'm not sure I can rationally or deterministic-ally explain this, but it's alive after replacing the cap, rotor, points, and condensor, swapping the coil, and removing an apparently erroneously-placed wire on the starter. It's not like I take notes during these sessions, so when I'm trying a lot of things, cause and effect get fuzzy.
But let me try.
At some point during the tuning process, when I hooked up the trigger-like starter switch for easy under-the-hood starting, I noticed that there was a wire broken off its push-on spade connector to the starter solenoid. I crimped a new spade connector on it, and put it where I thought it went -- next to the spade connector from the ignition. My best recollection is that this was not the cause of the failure to rev -- the failure to rev was the cause of my trying to tune it, hooking up the starter switch, and finding the broken wire. But it's possible I'm remembering it incorrectly.
The car then exhibited the symptom I initially posted -- it wouldn't ref past about 3500rpm, and when it would stumble, the ignition would cut out, verified by hooking up a timing light and not having it flash. But it WOULD flash when connected to the wire from the dizzy to the coil. This seemed, to me, to indicate spark coming into the dizzy but not making it out.
I swapped the coil, condenser, points, and plug wires with spares, and the car exhibited the same symptom. When I pulled the coil, though, I noticed it was a Pertronix Flamethrower coil with no polarity markings at all on the terminals. I recalled a curious note I found on one of the repair receipts that came with the car. It said "Pertronix Ignitor died -- removed and replaced with points." Who knows if any of this was related. BUT... when the Flamethrower coil was laid on the garage floor overnight, in the morning there was a puddle of oil beneath it. I left it out and instead began using a spare coil that originally came from my other E9.
I had no spare dizzy cap (I ordered a new one) so I cleaned the dizzy cap's contacts with a Dremmel tool and the most mild Scotch-Brite wheel I have.
Shortly after this (perhaps immediately after this; I'm not certain), the car went from not revinig past a certain point to not starting at all -- it would burble a little but not catch, even with a blast of starting fluid.
Around this time, I noticed that there was only 3V feeding the resistor. But even when I bypassed the wiring and wired the resistor directly to the battery and the coil directly to the resistor, the car still would not start.
While waiting for a new cap, rotor, points, and condenser to arrive, I kept thinking of how I could use my other E9 to test and fix the problem. My other E9 has L-Jet from an E12, and along with the L-Jet conversion came the E12's electronic ignition control module and unique resistor pack. I have these neatly mounted to the nose, and there's a mini-wiring harness plumbing them, so I couldn't easily take the dizzy, ICM, and resistor pack out of the red E9 to put them in the green E9.
Then I realized I COULD do it the other way -- I could easily pull the dizzy, coil, and resistor out of the green E9 and put them in the red one. I did, wiring the resistor to the battery and the coil to the resistor, and the red car exhibited exactly the same symptoms as the green car -- it wouldn't start, but gave a faint burble like it was trying. This seemed to take all the wiring in the green E9 out of the picture.
When the new cap, rotor, points, and condenser arrived, I installed them. It made no difference. I again checked the voltage feeding the resistor, and it was still low -- only about 3V, not 12.
I again wired the resistor directly to the battery and the coil to the resistor, and the car started right up, and rev'd freely (joy beyond all measure).
Thinking and futzing around for a bit, I remembered the errant wire on the starter. I looked at the starter on the other E9, and realized I'd put the wire in the wrong place. I'd put it on the same terminal as the ignition wire. On the other E9, it was on another terminal. The two starters are different, but I found the other terminal and put the wire on it.
It made no difference. The car would not start.
I then pulled the wire off. The car started right up and rev'd freely.
Further, the tach is now working. It hadn't been.
This is a car that a) has been converted from an automatic and b) has a bad ignition switch so there is a pushbutton under the dash to fire up the starter. It now seems possible that this wire was not hooked up at all, and I mistakenly thought I'd broken it off.
I suppose I could swap the old distributor cap and the leaky coil back in, one at a time, and see if any of the problems recur, but right now, I don't care.
Tomorrow I probably will :^)
I'm not sure I can rationally or deterministic-ally explain this, but it's alive after replacing the cap, rotor, points, and condensor, swapping the coil, and removing an apparently erroneously-placed wire on the starter. It's not like I take notes during these sessions, so when I'm trying a lot of things, cause and effect get fuzzy.
But let me try.
At some point during the tuning process, when I hooked up the trigger-like starter switch for easy under-the-hood starting, I noticed that there was a wire broken off its push-on spade connector to the starter solenoid. I crimped a new spade connector on it, and put it where I thought it went -- next to the spade connector from the ignition. My best recollection is that this was not the cause of the failure to rev -- the failure to rev was the cause of my trying to tune it, hooking up the starter switch, and finding the broken wire. But it's possible I'm remembering it incorrectly.
The car then exhibited the symptom I initially posted -- it wouldn't ref past about 3500rpm, and when it would stumble, the ignition would cut out, verified by hooking up a timing light and not having it flash. But it WOULD flash when connected to the wire from the dizzy to the coil. This seemed, to me, to indicate spark coming into the dizzy but not making it out.
I swapped the coil, condenser, points, and plug wires with spares, and the car exhibited the same symptom. When I pulled the coil, though, I noticed it was a Pertronix Flamethrower coil with no polarity markings at all on the terminals. I recalled a curious note I found on one of the repair receipts that came with the car. It said "Pertronix Ignitor died -- removed and replaced with points." Who knows if any of this was related. BUT... when the Flamethrower coil was laid on the garage floor overnight, in the morning there was a puddle of oil beneath it. I left it out and instead began using a spare coil that originally came from my other E9.
I had no spare dizzy cap (I ordered a new one) so I cleaned the dizzy cap's contacts with a Dremmel tool and the most mild Scotch-Brite wheel I have.
Shortly after this (perhaps immediately after this; I'm not certain), the car went from not revinig past a certain point to not starting at all -- it would burble a little but not catch, even with a blast of starting fluid.
Around this time, I noticed that there was only 3V feeding the resistor. But even when I bypassed the wiring and wired the resistor directly to the battery and the coil directly to the resistor, the car still would not start.
While waiting for a new cap, rotor, points, and condenser to arrive, I kept thinking of how I could use my other E9 to test and fix the problem. My other E9 has L-Jet from an E12, and along with the L-Jet conversion came the E12's electronic ignition control module and unique resistor pack. I have these neatly mounted to the nose, and there's a mini-wiring harness plumbing them, so I couldn't easily take the dizzy, ICM, and resistor pack out of the red E9 to put them in the green E9.
Then I realized I COULD do it the other way -- I could easily pull the dizzy, coil, and resistor out of the green E9 and put them in the red one. I did, wiring the resistor to the battery and the coil to the resistor, and the red car exhibited exactly the same symptoms as the green car -- it wouldn't start, but gave a faint burble like it was trying. This seemed to take all the wiring in the green E9 out of the picture.
When the new cap, rotor, points, and condenser arrived, I installed them. It made no difference. I again checked the voltage feeding the resistor, and it was still low -- only about 3V, not 12.
I again wired the resistor directly to the battery and the coil to the resistor, and the car started right up, and rev'd freely (joy beyond all measure).
Thinking and futzing around for a bit, I remembered the errant wire on the starter. I looked at the starter on the other E9, and realized I'd put the wire in the wrong place. I'd put it on the same terminal as the ignition wire. On the other E9, it was on another terminal. The two starters are different, but I found the other terminal and put the wire on it.
It made no difference. The car would not start.
I then pulled the wire off. The car started right up and rev'd freely.
Further, the tach is now working. It hadn't been.
This is a car that a) has been converted from an automatic and b) has a bad ignition switch so there is a pushbutton under the dash to fire up the starter. It now seems possible that this wire was not hooked up at all, and I mistakenly thought I'd broken it off.
I suppose I could swap the old distributor cap and the leaky coil back in, one at a time, and see if any of the problems recur, but right now, I don't care.
Tomorrow I probably will :^)
