Steven Fooshee wrote:
>
> Greetings list. I just replaced the points on my Sprite, and can't get
> the car to fire. It ran (poorly, due to no gap in the points) and now
> won't. Argh. Can someone give me an accurate list of the components
> under the bolt where the spring is? I remember flubbing this up when I
> replaced them last time and it running when I put the rubber bit back
> between the wire to the plate and the one to the condenser. I'm not the
> biggest whiz on points ignition, so please type slowly! TIA.
I would suspect that you have grounded out the points.
This is not hard to do, because there are a few styles of
points, and they insulate that arm differently. In other words,
if you take the old one off, and put the new one on
exactly the same, it might not work.
Essentially, there is one screw that holds the
points on the distributor, and also has the wire
to the condensor and the wire to the outside
screwed onto it with lugs.
These two wires have to make electrical contact
with each other, and the points arm, but NOT
to the distributor body. Since it's screwed in
with a metal screw, it has to be insulated.
There are two ways to do this that I know
of. One uses a plastic peg that these wires go
on, and a metal net screws onto the plastic peg
to secure them. I call this the "older" type because
a lot of cars that are getting their first points
change in a long time have them.
The "new" type seems to be what I get when
I order new ones today. The kit has two
cone-shaped plastic pegs, and a metal screw.
To assemble this, the two cones point towards
each other on the screw so that the metal of the
points is isolated from the screw it's on. As well,
the two lugged-wires go between the cones so they
touch the points but not the ground. Then the screw
is tightened down to hold everything but doesn't
electrically touch.
You'll figure it out if you have a look at what
you have. Just remember that those three electrical
contacts (points, condensor, and the one that goes
out under the cap) have to touch each other but not
be grounded to the distributor.
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
Thirty Helens agree.
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