[Healeys] update--BJ8--puttering, backfiring and shutting down

[John Vrugtman]

I've had two ignitor failures; one the magnet support unglued and they 
all fell out; dead stop; two a constant miss, one magnet was reversed.  
But generally they have been quite reliable.

John
Hightown, VA

On 10/10/2021 10:12 AM, Bob Spidell wrote:
> Thanks for reporting, Tom. When I read you suspected the Pertronix I 
> thought: "This is the first I've heard of an Ignitor becoming 
> intermittent (I'd always heard they failed outright."
>
>
> On 10/10/2021 3:30 AM, Tom Felts via Healeys wrote:
>> After 3 days of intense troubleshooting and racking my feeble brain 
>> on why this happened, I FINALLY found out why. Background-------was 
>> having a pleasant drive-----felt a slight miss------BIG 
>> backfire--sputtering then cutting off.  Sat for a while, she started 
>> and I drove maybe 100 yards.  Repeat of above------------sat beside 
>> the road and checked to see if I had fuel to the 
>> carbs--yes-----pulled float bowl lids and plenty of gas in float 
>> bowls.  had spark to plugs.   Nothing obvious--so called AAA--got 
>> towed home.
>>
>> Next several days I tried the switch and check method----changed fuel 
>> pump----changed coil,  changed rotor, replaced dist cap, pulled the 
>> battery cut-off sw and directly shorted to body ground, checked to 
>> make sure the low tension wire had not grounded itself.  ALL--to no 
>> avail.  so I was down to my last idea.
>>
>> That was to pull and replace the Pertronix Ignitor.  As I was taking 
>> it out, The cause of this whole mess became apparent.  The hot wire 
>> from the Ignitor to the coil had been rubbed raw on one side of the 
>> wire, exposing just a tiny amount of the inner wire.  It was this 
>> small amount of exposed wire that was shorting intermittingly.  and 
>> this was the source of my problem.
>> Apparently, over time the rotor had rubbed the wire until it rubbed 
>> enough insulation off to expose the wire. This shows how long that 
>> Pertronix had been in there.
>>
>> This was truly an AH HA moment.  Happy I found it but so very 
>> flustrated over what it took to discover it. But in the process I got 
>> a new fuel pump (electronic), new dist cap, new rotor, new Ignitor, 
>> new Pertronix coil, and a lot of knowledge:)
>>
>> Glad the root cause was finally found and fixed and she is purring 
>> again:)
>>
>> Tom
>>
>> Anyway, replace
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

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