Thanks for the reply Jarrid, I did checked the dwell and even adjusted
it a little. In the process, I also cleaned the points. I left the
fact that I did as an assumption in my previous post. I agree with
your reasoning, however, this is not the case here. The car will run
fine if I arc the spark from the wire to the distributor cap. As a
temporary fix, I have adjusted the wire with it's rubber cap so that
it is not seated in the distributor and is continuously arcing. I
drove it to work today that way and everything is fine.
I guess my question really is why does it run correctly when I arc the
spark and doesn't when I push the wire all the way in the cap -
especially when I cleaned all surfaces. Does the rotor affect this? I
have swapped several caps and several wire sets trying to diagnose.
One thing that I also did which I did not think was related was
replace my generator. I did this two days ago. Could this have any
affect on the strength of the spark and cause this problem? I will
test this theory tonight or tomorrow. If it runs fine after I push the
wire in, I will conclude that I was not getting enough voltage (or
amps - I am an financials consultant, not an electrical engineer so I
do not know which will affect the spark). Your thoughts please.
Chris
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Need Help With Spark
Author: jarrid_gross(at)juno.com at Internet-usa
Date: 10/23/97 1:18 AM
On Wed, 22 Oct 97 10:21:24 CST "Chris Stephenson" <cstephenson(at)dttus.com>
writes:
>which
> is causing my Series III to run poorly. I first discovered this
>when I
> attached a timing light to #1 plug wire. The light only flashed
>some
> of the time. If I pull the wire out from the distributor and
>create an
> arc, the car runs fine and the light flashes as it should. I seem
>to
> remember having this same problem about 16 years ago, but can't
> remember how I solved it. Here is what I have done:
> 1. I have sanded all contact surfaces
> 2. Replaced Distributor Cap, Plugs and Wires
> 3. I have NOT replaced the Coil, Points, Condenser or Rotor
>
Chris,
Check your dwell (adjust points).
Inductive pickup timing lights dont like too little dwell.
The light may be missing some ignition sparks, and not
flashing.
Jarrid
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