The black and white ground wire terminated near the fuse box is
intriguing. I thought that wire ran from the coil to the power cut-off
switch in the boot.
If it is attached to the coil and to the ground you will not have a
spark. If it was set up that way before I am confused as to how the car
ever ran.
The other thing that comes to mind is the ignition condenser. Their
failure patterns are like the mind of a mother-in-law, completely
unknowable.
Bill Lawrence
On May 5, 2004, at 5:26 PM, Editorgary@aol.com wrote:
> Okay, here's a puzzle for Gus at the Good-Time Garage, or the Tappet
> Twins at
> NPR.
> I'm going to try debugging this, but toss in your suggestions as to
> what you
> think might be wrong and what to check, and when I get to the bottom
> of the
> problem, I'll tell you.
> After three outings with my Healey-- the first 250 miles, the second
> 75
> miles, and the third that ended abruptly half a mile from home today
> after a 60
> mile drive -- my car is sitting in the garage, insisting that it be
> fixed before
> I take it out again.
> Hasn't been tuned up in quite awhile, but started up on first turn and
> idled
> smoothly. I'm running standard points ignition.
> After all those miles of totally uneventful motoring, as I turned off
> the
> highway on to the main street very close to home, the car just stopped.
> After I cruised to a stop and pushed it into a convenient parking lot,
> i
> determined the following --- It has charge; turns over like a champ,
> but just
> won't catch. It has gas; both float bowls full. All wires between the
> coil and
> distributor are securely hooked up. It may not be making a spark; the
> screwdriver
> in the lead, and holding the lead near the sparkplug tip produce
> nothing.
> Disconnecting the black/white ground wire at the terminal near the
> fuse block
> didn't help (so it isn't a cut-off switch/wire problem). That's as far
> as I got
> before I decided that working in my garage at my leisure was
> preferable to
> working in a parking lot with only emergency tools.
> Question one: what would you check and in what order?
> Question two: As a W.A.G., what do you think is going to turn out to
> be wrong?
> Cheers
> Gary
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