I had a funny one today.
Started up, backed out into the street and the engine died. No amount of
coaxing would revive it. popped the hood & checked for the usual culprits
(moisture in the HT circuit, ignition cicuit loose-ends). I hadn't paid that
much attention to the ignition circuit before seeing as the car has run like
a dream, I couldn't find any obvious faults, though i did discover that the
electronic ignition installed by the PO had been wired in in the most
half-assed manner imaginable. My mechanic housemate took one look at it and
basically said "pray it never goes wrong". Anyhow, moved on to check the
carb and fuel filter, and low and behold the fuel filter was suspiciously
empty. pulled the hose, stuck it in a jam jar, and sure enough no fuel. Back
round to the arse end of the car. whip the cover off the pump. 12V coming
out of the harness. get confused cos the wiring diagram says the pump should
be grounded via a wire to the harness. There's no wire, and the negative
terminal of the pump is there but unconnected. Anyhow, the 12V terminal is
gammy and corroded. Clean it all off, pinch the contacts, put it back on the
pump, turn the ignition and humprhey starts up like a dream. So my problem
is solved for now, but i have three questions for the sages:
1. Is the gammy contact really the problem, or is there maybe something
nastier lurking.
2. Should the pump in a 79B be operating through some kind of direct ground
connection like this one appears to be?
3. Electronic ignition? Can anyone out there give me a 101? Especially,
could this be part of my mysterious crappy fuel economy and disabled vacuum
advance?
thanks in advance
cheers
Joe.
_________________
Dr. Joseph Garner
Department of Animal Science,
University of California,
One Shields Avenue,
Davis,
CA 95616
USA
tel: + 530 754 5291
fax: + 530 752 0175
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