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Re: Midget won't start...

To: Railroad2@aol.com
Subject: Re: Midget won't start...
From: "W. R. Gibbons" <gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu>
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996 15:03:30 -0500 (EST)
On Wed, 7 Feb 1996 Railroad2@aol.com wrote:

> Hello People,
> 
> I'm a little bit embarrassed to say my '66 Midget will not fire, and I'm not
> having much luck fixing it.  I must have brain fade, but I'd appreciate a few
> pointers.

> The fact that the starting fluid is not igniting seems to be saying there is
> no spark, but the wire sparks to the plug, so where does that leave me?  How
> much of a spark should I see?

> PLEASE SUGGEST POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS, NO MATTER HOW OBVIOUS.
> 
> (I made a point to post this during the day since a lot of you seem to do
> your e-mail during business hours when you probably should be working.)

> Glen Wilson

Seems kind of counter productive to insult people even as you ask them 
for help.  Fact is, some of us work so effectively that we have time for 
this.  It's mainly the inefficient people who need to keep their noses 
stuck to the grindstone.

But I forgive you.  I shouldn't, but wotthehell.  Given that you have
spark and you have gas and you've even tried ether, four possibilities
come to mind. 

1) too much gas--flooded.  Seems unlikely, since you have dry plugs.

2) some ham handed present owner has the spark plug wires mixed up.

3) spark timing way off.  Do static timing on your engine per manual.

4) valve timing way off (timing chain jumped).  Tests would include the
following: a) listen carefully to the engine as it cranks over--a jumped
timing chain causes the valves to open at the wrong time, and the engine
may crank with a syncopated rhythm; b) do a compression check; c) put #1
cylinder on top dead center with the distributor rotor pointing to the
number 1 wire, and see if the rocker arms for the number 1 cylinder are
not touching the intake and exhaust valves.

Ray "Mr. Efficient" Gibbons

   Ray Gibbons  Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
                Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
                gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu  (802) 656-8910


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