[WPTA] Help Needed

[Kevin Dadey]

Hello all,
I hope you’re having a great summer. I planned to as well and expected to be attending British Car Days and other club events but my 1976 Spitfire is sidelined again with what seems like ignition problems. 
Here’s the situation. I have a 1976 Spitfire with a Crane XR700 ignition system. The carburetor and distributor were lovingly rebuilt this winter by Bruce. Thanks again Bruce. It seemed fine until earlier this summer, I took it for a short drive and quickly headed back home. The engine was struggling and stuttering while going up a mild incline in 3rd gear. Following the advice of a friend with a TR6, living in South Carolina, I tested disconnected each spark plug wire in sequence to figure out if there was trouble inside the engine. Removing the #4 spark plug wire resulted in no change in the idle. Of course it stuttered badly upon removing #1 - #3 wires. I managed to drive the car to a nearby garage in Carnegie – European Automotive Specialists. They ran a compression test and all four cylinders had between 140 – 150 pounds. The mechanic thought he isolated the problem with the distributor cap or wire to #4. I purchased a new cap, rotor and better set of Cobalt spark plug wires. This did not help. The engine still ran roughly and struggled under load. 
Next, I purchased a new Lucas Sport coil from Victoria British. The ad on the website said to disconnect the ballast/resistance wire so I cut and capped the pink and white wire. Now the car won’t start. I get a few pops but nothing to work with and coax it into running. I will probably reconnect the pink and white wire, but then again, I don’t think it will help. I’ve checked the firing order and it is correct. 
So, I’m waving the white flag and asking if anyone has the time and patience to help me get my car running again?By the way I live in Crafton.
Much thanks, Kevin.  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/wpta/attachments/20190819/00e75abd/attachment.html>