Took the car for several short trips around the block and it went fine. On the third short outing, I stopped to get some fuel. By this time the engine had reached normal operating temperature. When I departed the car started to run rough, misfiring & carrying on. I made it home and rolled into its parking space as the engine stalled. Popped the hood and everything looked fine. My eye was drawn to the coil and for some reason I touched it and the damn thing was hot. Now I know an engine mounted coil will always get hot but the engine was cooler than the coil. I pulled the coil and it's a resistor type. 'Use With Resistor' it says on the side. I am wondering if it's overheating due to NOT running a resistor, only resistance wire...which should amount to the same outcome.

Now, what's going on? This is the coil the mechanic fitted when the car broke down all those months ago. Surely it's not right for this car. The resistance wire should take care of any voltage lowering requirements. I measured resistance across the top of the coil (disconnected, earth side grounded) and got 1.3 Ohms. The Pertronix coil that he replaced (I still have) measured the same: 1.3. My factory workshop manual says the coil should be 1.8 - 2.0 Ohms.

Am I right in thinking the coil getting hot is causing it to misfire? Tried to search for the correct 1.8 Ohm coil but what a minefield. I'm thinking bypass the resistance wire altogether and install a ballast resistor. Then with simple arithmetic, I'll know that 12V from ignition, minus ballast (say 1.6) minus 1.3 at coil gives 9.1V to keep the points happy.  

Weirdly, when engine is idling I'm only getting 5 - 6V at the coil +.

Edited May 26, 20242 yr by Fitzy

11 hours ago, Fitzy said:

I found time yesterday to do some test joins with various connectors on scrap wire.

It seems the 'heatshrink crimp connectors' I was using do NOT contain solder. They look like they're full of solder but it ain't so. They won't even shrink with heat - the plastic just starts to bubble!  I also have the correct soldered connectors that are essentially clear with a coloured ring of plastic on each end to denote size and a ring of solder clearly visible in the middle. THEY are the ones to use - work perfectly. So, I'm going to get a nice big assortment of the correct ones off ebay and throw those other things in the bin.

And yes, Kiwi is right. When space is tight and you're upside down under the dash using the last 6 inches of factory wire available to you, the only real option is to twist the wires together and heatshrink over them. If I had attempted to solder those joins yesterday, my face would now be covered in solder burns.

I slept like the dead last night, finally free of waking up at 3am trying to figure out why the damn car won't start!

I am pleased mate 🍻

I like to use the "naked" butt connectors, crimp them and then solder/shrink tube 

Never was good at twist the wires together and solder.😜

Don't like the red/blue/yellow ones much.

Fitzy I think you gave me your nightmares. Lucy is misbehaving and so close to Power Tour time.

I have NEVER had so much trouble with any old car. I drove my little 1968 Renault on some of Australia's roughest roads for 7 years and 300000km on points & carby and it NEVER played up.

Spoke to mechanic today about ballast resistors and whatnot and he said to just covert it to electronic ignition and I couldn't agree more. I still have the Pertronix 1 in the shed and the original AC Delco dizzy so might play around with that next time I'm home. He has always used MSD products but his budget is unlimited whereas I'm loathe to chuck yet another thousand on that sort of hardware. What a circus.

Well Frostarelli, I sure hope your wheels sort themselves out before you're parading around in front of hundreds of people and it dies on you. The brutal indignity that is pushing your car to the side of the road in view of an audience will only be cured by one of two things: buying a Corolla or plenty of alcohol after the event. Good luck! 

Just to give us all a laugh, what's the issue?

This should probably be in the What Did You Do To Your Car Today thread, but bad luck - here it is.

I finally got around to sanding & coating the timber tray on my pickup. 3 coats of decking sealer and drying in the sun and it's done. The next Sunday arvo job is to remove the gates and sand, prime and recoat them. These are the jobs I like - they are entirely optional and don't affect the way the car runs!

Le Pontiac...I whipped out the dizzy, put it in the vice and carefully removed the points & condenser. Installed the Pertronix and neatly routed the wires through a grommet in the distributor base to the Pertronix matched coil. I also relocated the coil to the firewall to get it away from engine heat & vibration. I bypassed the factory resistance wire and the coil now gets a healthy 12.2V. I also reinstalled my Blue Streak HT leads because you can't use solid core leads with electronic ignition! Apparently, the solids create electrical 'noise' that can affect the ignition module, causing missing. I don't recall reading this the first time I installed the Pertronix. Fired her up and this is an observation I made last time - I'm convinced it sounds different with the Pertronix. Took it for a drive and it still continues to miss & fart and carry on so in disgust turned it around, parked it and walked away from it. I needed to give myself a break from the issue.

Got talking to an Old Skool mechanic who lives about 10km away. He's retired but now works from home and his reputation is legendary. I introduced myself and told him about the car. We chatted for the best part of half an hour and he bombarded me with questions. His conclusion (without even seeing the car) was that if the points AND electronic systems produced the same symptoms it's gotta be fuel. This was a conclusion I had already come to at 3am the previous morning. Why waste time sleeping?

He said to check the fuel pump (it's new) whether there was a healthy squirt of fuel from the accelerator pump (there was) and to check the gauze filter that sits in the Carter inlet. I know what you're thinking: this is all obvious fundamental stuff and I had already done those basic checks BUT I never checked the gauze filter. I removed it and it's brand new from the carb rebuild. I blew through it. Whew! That was tough. I turned it around and blew again - even tougher. I then wondered if this was impeding the flow of fuel so much that the carb was starving. Besides that, I already have a disposable inline filter between the pump & carb inlet - the gauze seems unnecessary. I removed it, replaced the inlet and drove the car. Fixed! No more carry on and plenty of power on tap. It needs a highway drive to properly test it so early days yet.

This info is for others who may have a similar issue. I never would have thought of it but needed the conversation with another person to make it happen.

Glad you found the problem. I am surprised that you had a problem with that one. I've had good luck with these fuel filters. Of course, I try to buy old AC NOS stock, I try to avoid the new stuff. Again I am biased.

Great job Fitzy, hope its all smooth travels from here out bud.

Why don't you JUSTA ask Alexa????  She knows everything!!!  AND she's awake at 3am.

Edited June 7, 20241 yr by JUSTA6

Nice detective work there fitzy ! 
I am surprised you even stuck with the old Carter , I did what you did and rebuilt mine  and it just wasn’t perfect , as soon as I swapped mine out for the new edlebrock it was like night turning day !!! Way more power through the whole rpm range and you can see a much better squirt from the accelerator pump  

Perhaps if I unblock a few toilets and charge $400 per hour, I'll do just that.

The fact that the Edelbrock is largely designed around the Carter tells me the Carter is a good thing. Mind you, if I had known about the rebuild cost, I would have defo gone for the Brock.  Next time.

HA! Trick statement! There WILL BE NO NEXT TIME.

Now - anybody wanna buy a nicely running GP?

18 hours ago, Frosty said:

Glad you found the problem. I am surprised that you had a problem with that one. I've had good luck with these fuel filters. Of course, I try to buy old AC NOS stock, I try to avoid the new stuff. Again I am biased.

You know Frosty, I put that thing to my mouth again today and could hardly blow through it. I held it up to the sun and no light was getting through. Surely, these mesh filters are an old fashioned hangover from the past before plastic inline filters were commonplace. I see no reason why the carb rebuilder deemed it necessary to install the damn thing, unless it 'tempers' the fuel pump's outlet pressure, but I would think the simple needle & float will overcome that pressure to prevent flooding.

More to the point, I can't understand why it's apparently blocked. It appears to be of immensely dense & fine porous material, but I reckon if I suspended it above a container and carefully poured some petrol into the top, none would make it through. 

Whatever - it's out of the carb and is staying out.

The next step is to man up and grow a pair and actually get it out on the highway for a good run. I keep thinking I'm gonna break down somewhere, so I'll be taking a snack, water, hat, spare fuel and some tools!

Look at what I stumbled across at the swap meet yesterday. This is gonna tick of Fitzy cause I hardly ever seem them anymore.

 

 

Know what I paid? Zip. Nada. He wanted to get rid of them.....blew me away! I thanked him for sure.

 

We did have a good chuckle over the find. Thankz Fitzy.

Glad I was of some use. Makes a change.

Aw mate! Don’t take that attitude!

No one is completely worthless! They can always serve as bad examples! 

10 hours ago, JUSTA6 said:

We did have a good chuckle over the find. Thankz Fitzy.

ALWAYS better to be thought of with a smile mate.

Fitzy...So how come we didn't see you in the coverage of Coolangatta??  

Because it's 1000 miles south of where I live?

1 hour ago, Fitzy said:

Because it's 1000 miles south of where I live?

2 hours ago, Fitzy said:

Because it's 1000 miles south of where I live?

Frosty's about 900mi from home playin Power tour. 

55 minutes ago, JUSTA6 said:

Frosty's about 900mi from home playin Power tour. 

Gees  ! Hope he doesn’t get lost 

2 hours ago, JUSTA6 said:

Frosty's about 900mi from home playin Power tour. 

....and loving every moment of it.

There is no hope of getting lost mate! My wife will give me explicit directions where to go and how to get there!  I'm never lost.....just confused.....a lot.

Edited June 12, 20241 yr by Frosty

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

....and loving every moment of it.

There is no hope of getting lost mate! My wife will give me explicit directions where to go and how to get there!  I'm never lost.....just confused.....a lot.

and thats how the fight started .......

i am green with envy mate !!! i would love to cruise your big roads in my 72 and justA suck up everything alone the way !!!!

So - you're having car troubles? Can't work out why it's missing & stumbling? Might be a vacuum leak.

Here is a vacuum hose schematic from a 80s carburettored Honda just prior to EFI. It's titled 'Run Away Screaming!'