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Distributor problem - update

To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Distributor problem - update
From: MGBnutt@aol.com
Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 21:39:12 EDT
Hey everyone, thought I'd update you all on my distributor problem.  (So 
often we hear the questions, but not always the solutions.)  First off, many 
thanks to all who sent answers to my original questions.

As some of you may remember, I had removed the distributor to clean and check 
the advance assembly in an effort to solve a backfiring upon acceleration 
problem.  When I replaced the distributor the car refused to start.  It has an 
after-market Piranha (optical) electronic ignition and I had cut the pickup 
wire 
when I removed the distributor.  When I replaced the distributor I found a 40 
year old "Jones plug" connector (black crinkle paint and very "period" 
looking in the MGB engine bay) and reconnected the 4 wires I had cut with that.

Sunday I finally got another chance to continue working on the car.  Thinking 
perhaps the timing was way out, I turned the distributor as far clockwise as 
it would go, planning on turning it counter clockwise one degree at a time 
until it started (maybe).  A few crankings and some fiddling with the 
distributor 
produced no results.  Next, I was going to pull the valve cover and find TDC 
on cylinder #1 but first I thought I should double check there was actually a 
"spark" going to the cylinders.  So I pulled the plug wire off the #1 spark 
plug and attached it to a spare plug grounded to the engine.  I also double 
checked my "Jones plug" wiring.  I cranked the engine over and, much to my 
surprise, it immediately started on only 3 cylinders!  So I replaced the plug 
wire 
and started it again on all 4 cylinders.  Success!

Apparently, the antique plug I used for reconnecting the Piranha pickup wire 
was too oxidized to make good contact.  Exercising the plug a few times was 
all that was needed!  However, I can still make it "stumble" if I fiddle with 
the two plug halves.  Next project: Eliminating that silly connector and 
soldering the wires directly back together while I search for my timing light.
Thanks,
Donny V
1978 MGB





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