Joined: Thu Jul 08 2010, 10:24PM
Location: Pleasant Hill, CA
Posts: 415
Well the car has been sitting for weeks now unable to start. Burned out Pertronix 2 was sent back to Pertronix as they wanted to see it as they say it has a switch to protect it against high voltage. Replacement Pertronix, not working under 17 volts, won't start the car. Made sure, just in case I became blind, that the rotor wasn't off 180 degrees. It wasn't but the body needed to be advanced to line up #1 which made no difference anyway. Got spark at high tension wire and at the spark plugs. Plugs show slight discoloration from firing. Measured compression at 125-130 across the board. May be a little low. Dropped in a points distributor and the engine wouldn't start with that. That just about eliminates an ignition problem. So with fuel, spark and compression what is left? Best guess now is that the timing is off internally at the cam gear. How that could be in the blink of an eye I don't know but seems the only variable left. My brother warned me that could be the problem if the points didn't work.
Perfect! Of course, the car has just about everything in the front it could have from AC to smog pump. Of course, the car happens to be in the street and isn't going anywhere. Of course, this will probably take 2 days to deal with by taking two days off from work. Weekends out of the question with an 18 month old son I have to watch as Mom works those days. Perfect!
Joined: Sat Sep 23 2006, 04:30AM
Location: Sharpsburg, GA
Posts: 924
If the timing chain jumped a tooth,it happens a lot when cranking. I had a brand new one snap in half recently while cranking. It should still fire though, but backfire. you could rotate the dist enough to get it running.