Re: Adventures with a 1955 Clipper
Posted by JWL On 2012/5/2 14:13:37
Hello All,
On Sunday, I got a chance to do some trouble shooting on the ignition system. The original equipment Auto Lite coil ballast resistor and coil checked out good. I reinstalled them and proceeded to try and start the car. No start. Must be ignition as fuel was being pumped into the carburetor.
I removed the distributor cap and rotor, and they looked good. Next I removed the distributor and discovered that one of the primary wire terminal post's insulators was broken. There are three post insulators on this distributor; it was the inside square-shaped one that was broken. The photos show the parts.
I must have over tightened it, probably when assembling it after doing the painting and maintenance last year, or installing the Sun tachometer. The broken insulator allowed the wire from the terminal post to the breaker points to come into contact with the breaker plate. This caused some intermittent missing and hard starting. I also discovered that the vacuum advance chamber was no longer holding vacuum. It was good when I was working on the distributor last year.
Luckily, I had bought a NOS distributor when I first got the car. I cleaned and set the points, oiled it, checked the vacuum chamber, and installed it. The car started right up, quicker than it has ever done for me, and ran smoothly after setting the timing. A test drive around the neighborhood proved the missing was gone.
The plan is to drive it to the Cars n' Coffee event in nearby Leander on Sunday. We'll see how it goes.
I was convinced that the big problem was ignition and not fuel. Before the broken insulator was discovered, I ordered a carburetor overhaul kit from Daytona Carburetor. I may go through the carburetor to get ethanol resistant parts in it.
Thanks for your time and attention.
(o[]o)
Attach file:
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On Sunday, I got a chance to do some trouble shooting on the ignition system. The original equipment Auto Lite coil ballast resistor and coil checked out good. I reinstalled them and proceeded to try and start the car. No start. Must be ignition as fuel was being pumped into the carburetor.
I removed the distributor cap and rotor, and they looked good. Next I removed the distributor and discovered that one of the primary wire terminal post's insulators was broken. There are three post insulators on this distributor; it was the inside square-shaped one that was broken. The photos show the parts.
I must have over tightened it, probably when assembling it after doing the painting and maintenance last year, or installing the Sun tachometer. The broken insulator allowed the wire from the terminal post to the breaker points to come into contact with the breaker plate. This caused some intermittent missing and hard starting. I also discovered that the vacuum advance chamber was no longer holding vacuum. It was good when I was working on the distributor last year.
Luckily, I had bought a NOS distributor when I first got the car. I cleaned and set the points, oiled it, checked the vacuum chamber, and installed it. The car started right up, quicker than it has ever done for me, and ran smoothly after setting the timing. A test drive around the neighborhood proved the missing was gone.
The plan is to drive it to the Cars n' Coffee event in nearby Leander on Sunday. We'll see how it goes.
I was convinced that the big problem was ignition and not fuel. Before the broken insulator was discovered, I ordered a carburetor overhaul kit from Daytona Carburetor. I may go through the carburetor to get ethanol resistant parts in it.
Thanks for your time and attention.
(o[]o)
Attach file:
(33.88 KB)
(36.79 KB)
(36.91 KB)
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