Car died will not start

[dbrist]

I respect you ideas, but disagree. I think that changing out a distributer on a car for a known good one is the best way to start. I find that the search can range from gas to spark and everywhere in between, but most of the problems I find are in the distributer. I have a few that I have rebuilt and have run for a while that are known good. It has saved lots of time when I'm looking at a car and they are insisting that it is a carburetor, and I'm just as sure it isn't a fuel problem. If you change it out and the problem goes away, it will narrow your search for the problem, if it doesn't it will also let you concentrate on the others problems you might have.
I also do this with fuel. I hang a small tank on the radiator rods and bypass anything in the tank or fuel filter, or just bad gas. I also do this for the ignition, there is a bypass sold that is more of a factory hotwire, this takes the complete switch out of the equation.
Gremlins are sometimes hard to ferret out, and elimination of whole problem areas can be of great help when the symptoms are all over the place.

Strangest one lately was on the trip to Loveland an exhaust clamp came loose and the muffler fell. Tried to wire it up and pull off into a stop we were making when it fell. The car would not run. Bolted up the muffler loosely and it just barley ran. Got it tight and it ran fine.
Talked to folks at the meet, and had to face palm when I was told that the engine must be grounding through the muffler and the answer was a ground strap.

So your telling me I need to install my new muffler before I attempt to start it?

 

[billybronco1]

This has been an interesting post. I started the car several times and it seems fine and went for a few short trips. As you know these cars like to be started a certain way hot & cold I might have been anxious and screwed up the sequence when doing my test starts after replacing the condenser. As far as the distributor it takes the modern style points & condenser, not sure if the distributor itself is different so I did not pull it apart and look for that wire that was mentioned. I'm sure I will have updates - thanks

 

[Tom Wesenberg]

Look at your first picture where the cloth wire terminal is very close to the metal body. That looks like a problem. In fact it looks like a burn spot from arcing.

I only use the original top plate and points, and like them.

 

[dalton]

Good eye Tom. I see a tiny blob of metal on the distributor housing next to the pigtail flag.

 

[billybronco1]

I took a close up and can't see an issue, am I missing something?

 

[saintjoelarry]

I think perhaps we were seeing the end of the screw that holds the wire in place. On the overhead view looking down into the distributor cap, it looked a bit like an arc had occurred in the metal. Looking at the close up suggests we were seeing only the tip of the screw.

 

[Tom Wesenberg]

I think Larry's right, but now I see something else in this last picture.
Where are your 4 cam lobes?
It must be the camera angle, but it sure doesn't look like much of a lobe.

 

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Loosen the cable that screws into the distributor, by 1/4 turn, in case it's screwed in too far & shorting out, when it expands with heat. Minerva did that once, only after she was QUITE warm.
Bill W.

 

[jfreddie]

Try moving your spark lever and checking your volts at the open points. If the volts changed your lower plate wire's probably shorting.
While you're at the distributor, take out the condenser and check your voltage at the points again. If your reading batt voltage without the condenser and .68v with it installed, then your condenser is shorting.

 

[Bruce Adams]

Certain vintage "Modern Points" did not require a wire from plate to plate in the distributor. They used a springy metal connector instead and these sometimes fail and are hard to trouble shoot.
You said you had no "Plate to Plate Wire" so see if you have a springy metal that has gotten old and fails to make contact.

 

[Tom Wesenberg]

Certain vintage "Modern Points" did not require a wire from plate to plate in the distributor. They used a springy metal connector instead and these sometimes fail and are hard to trouble shoot.
You said you had no "Plate to Plate Wire" so see if you have a springy metal that has gotten old and fails to make contact.

The cloth wire is the lower plate wire.

 

[billybronco1]

I bought a heat shield for the distributor not knowing how it mounted and found out you can't use it when you have a manifold heater installed