Gary:
As others have suggested - 1st thing to check - bad rotor (grounded.) Seems
to be happening frequently to a lot of Healey owners.
The white/black wire at the distributor runs directly back to the battery
master switch. (if your car is wired as original, which I believe it is).
It's purpose - to ground the ignition when the switch is in the 'off'
position. Never could figure out the reasoning for grounding the ignition
when the switch is in the 'off' position anyway.
If the switch fails internally (still allowing power to the car), or if the
wire grounds anywhere along it's length - no spark. If you have not yet
found the problem, check this out by eliminating the wire completely from
the circuit. This wire may be twinned at the coil terminal with the
coil-to-distributor L/T wire - if you don't want to cut anything, disconnect
it, and rig a jumper L/T lead to test.
I had a battery master switch fail on me one time exactly like that. I also
had a friend have the white/black wire come off the terminal in the boot of
a 4-seater and get grounded by luggage or tools or something - same result -
car stopped right there. Sometimes 'jiggling' the switch will correct the
problem - then you know that the switch needs replacement.
Let us know.
Earl Kagna
Victoria, B.C.
BT7 tri-carb
BJ8
----- Original Message -----
From: <Editorgary@aol.com>
To: <healeys@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 5:26 PM
Subject: Car stopped puzzle
Okay, here's a puzzle for Gus at the Good-Time Garage, or the Tappet Twins
at
NPR.
I'm going to try debugging this, but toss in your suggestions as to what you
think might be wrong and what to check, and when I get to the bottom of the
problem, I'll tell you.
After three outings with my Healey-- the first 250 miles, the second 75
miles, and the third that ended abruptly half a mile from home today after a
60
mile drive -- my car is sitting in the garage, insisting that it be fixed
before
I take it out again.
Hasn't been tuned up in quite awhile, but started up on first turn and idled
smoothly. I'm running standard points ignition.
After all those miles of totally uneventful motoring, as I turned off the
highway on to the main street very close to home, the car just stopped.
After I cruised to a stop and pushed it into a convenient parking lot, i
determined the following --- It has charge; turns over like a champ, but
just
won't catch. It has gas; both float bowls full. All wires between the coil
and
distributor are securely hooked up. It may not be making a spark; the
screwdriver
in the lead, and holding the lead near the sparkplug tip produce nothing.
Disconnecting the black/white ground wire at the terminal near the fuse
block
didn't help (so it isn't a cut-off switch/wire problem). That's as far as I
got
before I decided that working in my garage at my leisure was preferable to
working in a parking lot with only emergency tools.
Question one: what would you check and in what order?
Question two: As a W.A.G., what do you think is going to turn out to be
wrong?
Cheers
Gary
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