"A" won't start

larrys40 said:
Chris , “test don’t guess” … the old Sun slogan .
With the high tension lead held near as pro plug make sure you are getting a good hot blue spark. Do it with the rotation of the engine, not opening and closing the points manually. You might end up masking a connection issue. If it’s good you know your primary and secondary is working.

Done.

I know you said you had gas at the throat, which most of the time says you have enough fuel. Dows it cough at all? You might remove the bottom of the carb and make sure the main and cap jets aren’t clogged. Some of today’s fuel sitting at the top of the jets can clog in a month or two for sure . I would suggest che king that out. Making sure you don’t have stuck valves, which can make it hard to start…

Done. Bowl dropped and a piece of crap was in low speed jet. Removed it and made sure the other jets were clear. Timing is on. Spark is blue and jumps a large gap. Gas was fresh from the pump.
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I worked on an A a couple of years ago that had a similar issue. We tested everything as outlined above and it all looked good. We finally figured out that it was the ignition switch that was acting up intermittently. May be worth checking.
 
Ayers1 said:
I worked on an A a couple of years ago that had a similar issue. We tested everything as outlined above and it all looked good. We finally figured out that it was the ignition switch that was acting up intermittently. May be worth checking.
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Spark is steady and strong.
 
Spark is steady and strong.
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Yes I saw where you said that. It was on the car I worked on until we turned it over. Then it looked like the switch was off when we hit the starter button. It was just a different idea.
 
The clear plastic distributor cap is a good tool for analyzing the sparks to the plugs under actual starting and running condition.

You may have the greatest spark but if it occures at the wrong time the engine will not run. Do not trust the pin in the timing gear and use your thumb to gauge when the compression stroke is on #1 cylinder. Then use a stick, like a wooden pencil, to gauge when the piston is at the top and set the timing accordingly.
 
As a youngster just learning about engines with my father, he would say if there is any question about spark all you need to do is touch this plug wire while he cranked.. Crazy as it sounded you could tell right away if you were getting spark (even weak).. I would also do a quick compression check just to make sure all the valves are doing the right thing..
 
If your car is wired correctly, (with the November 1929 Service bulletin applied) the opening and closing of the ignition points during engine cranking via starter motor is displayed on the ammeter as an -3 amp flicker. Applying the bulletin takes less than 5 minutes.

The ammeter is your best friend when the car dies unexpectedly on the road or fails to start. If you are behind the wheel in the driver's seat, your eyes should be on the ammeter watching for this twitch anytime you are cranking the engine. Your eyes should move to the ammeter instantly, if you feel the engine loose power out on the road, sans safety considerations.

Before you leave the driver's seat you can quickly conclude several things about the cars electrical system. This helps identify a starting point of a step by step plan to home in on the problem.
 
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