Listers,
I need a little help. I was travellng along a highway when the engine
in my 80 B decided to quit. I was accellerating smartly in third gear just
getting ready to
shift into forth when the car lost power and I had to pull off to the
side of the road. There was no restart. I did check to see that it was
getting
gas - or at least the gas filter was full. To dangerous a location to
do much else. Nearly got hit by a Mustange doing better than 80 trying to
do a breakdown
lane pass - when I was stopped in the break down lane ! The car was towed
(flatbed) home.
I had a chance to look at it today. I did a quick check and the spark
seemed weak.
I checked this by pulling a spark plug, resting it on the block and had someone
crank the engine. So just as a precaution, I replaced the plugs, wires, rotor,
and cap. Still weak spark and no start. No biggie, it needed it anyway.
BTW by weak, I mean that the spark is yellow in color and thin.
The PO installed a Crane X-700 module. I believe that he also installed
some sort
of device to eliminate the points. The device is connected to the Crane module
by wires that run through a notch in the distributor, and not through the
standard
connector on the side of the disrtibutor.
The coil is an unknown type, but it does say that it must be used wth a
ballast
resistor. It could be stock.
Does anyone have any idea what might be going on ? Is this type of
failure indicitive of
a bad ballast resistor ? Maybe a coil that has opened up although I wold
think an
open coil would mean no spark at all. Perhaps the Crane module has gone bad ?
I would be appreciative of any/all suggestions.
Thanks in advance,
Gene Balinski
80 B
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