[Spridgets] 45DM4 Re: still no Workie

[Richard Ball]

I sent this out last night, but apparently it didn't make it to the list:

Sorry to jump in here late, but I've been away from the computer.

We did actual have spark to each plug last night with the Mallory installed.
At first I hooked the timing light up to each lead in turn and got a light
pulse.  Then later we pulled number one plug and I connected each lead and
got spark when grounded to the head,  Ed was on the other side of the car
cranking it over and may not have seen what I did., plus we tried several
thing that night.  Sorry for the confusion Ed.  Hard to keep track, but we
did have spark and fuel.   Just no starting.  We may have been 180 out, but
we thought we were right on.  We brought number one up on compression then
moved it to TDC by hand.  So here is the question.  Which direction should
the rotor have been pointing?  We had it pointing towards the front of the
car, so if we were 180 out should it have been pointing to the rear?

We swapped in an older dizzy that Bill M had loaned Ed, but the coil lead
was bad so we didn't have spark at the cap.  We did swap out the coil wire
for a known good one and did get spark when grounded out to the head, so we
know the points, condenser, and low tension wire was working.  It was an
older screw type cap so we didn't attach it to the cap.  That's when we had
to call it for the night.

I have to thank everybody for their help and advice on this.  Both Ed and
myself are fairly new to Spridgets and are working are way through with lots
of help.  Last night was the first time since I sold my '68 firebird 20 plus
years ago that I had to work with points in a car.  On top of that I have a
1550 so haven't paid as much attention to the A series discussions as I
should have.

Rich Ball
'76 Midget
Everett, WA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Edward Perez" <eap2140 at yahoo.com>
To: "Edward Perez" <eap2140 at yahoo.com>; <kk7ss at verizon.net>
Cc: <Spridgets at autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 10:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] 45DM4 Re: still no workie...


> I'm at the point with this car that I really need some expert help.  Rich
> and I worked on it last night.  We swapped out the distributor with a new
> Mallory dual point distributor and the car wouldn't even start.  We
> confirmed TDC and the new coil is good.  Getting spark all the way to the
> cap, but not to the cylinders.  Put in the points distributor from BillM
> and had the same results.  I'm getting pretty frustrated with this
> problem.  It's been going on for months now.  I had a lot of people give
> their time in putting this engine together (NOSHIT II) only to have it
> plagued by this problem.  I still have not even driven it to break in the
> motor.  I'm open to any assistance on this.  I really want to get this car
> running.  If you are in the Seattle area, please let me know if you have
> time to stop on by and throw in your two cents.  I'm at my wit's end with
> it.
>
> things done so far:
>
> Confirmed fuel pressure
> Installed fuel regulator (Weber carb) and dialed to 3lbs (Holley
> regulator, not the junk one, BillL)
> Replace fuel line
> New distributors (points gapped to .015 and electronic), cap, rotor,
> wires, plugs (gapped to .029)
> New fuel filter
> Timing was set (but it is questionable given the suspected distributor
> issue)
> Weber Carb rebuilt a couple of times (all jetting is per the manual)
> Float level verified per the manual
>
>
> Thanks guys.....Ed