HELP, please

1931 flamingo

1931 flamingo

Well-known member
Went out to go to cruise tonight, it started right away and then died, won't restart. After posting this I will do a search. Have fuel at carb and bowl full, retimed it and have spark at the points,6+ volts both side of coil(static state), but if put coil wire near head nut and turn it over nothing. Coil was new last fall. I had it out last night and everything was fine. Any suggestions?? Thanks
Paul in CT :(:(:(
 
Crank the engine till the points are open, turn on ignition switch and bridge the point gap with a screwdriver blade and see if the coil sparks. If so you need to file or burnish the point faces.
 
1931 flamingo said:
Went out to go to cruise tonight, it started right away and then died, won't restart. After posting this I will do a search. Have fuel at carb and bowl full, retimed it and have spark at the points,6+ volts both side of coil(static state), but if put coil wire near head nut and turn it over nothing. Coil was new last fall. I had it out last night and everything was fine. Any suggestions?? Thanks
Paul in CT :(:(:(
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With points closed you should have 6 volts on one side 0 on the other.
Points open you should have 6 volts on both sides.

With the points closed if you have 6 volts on both sides the points are not making connection to ground.
 
File or sand the points real real good re check gap and re set if needed battery is probabably a little weak and doesn't have enough power to turn the starter and fire the points with enough power to run the engine. this is very very common we hear it all of the time. A similar incident just happened to Tom Wesenberg. If you have modern points that could very well be the culpret. I use to have similar problems with a double a truck if it sat for any length of time.
 
This weekend something similar happened to me. I had just converted to modern points and it just quit after 17 miles. Had current at the points but no spark when I turned the engine over. Put in a new condenser and it started right up.
 
if you have a volt meter or a trouble light, put a business card between the points, turn the key on, and put the probe on the arm of the points. There should be battery voltage there (the light should light). If it is not there you are most likely losing it in the key\pop out assembly. This is a very common failure mode.

This is where a bypass cable you can hook to the distributor comes in handy.

Tom Endy
 
Gentlemen: THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! I neglected to say I had already swapped the condenser out and run a burnishing blade across the points. But after reading Mike V, J Franklin and Purdy's posts I went back out (losing daylight now) and removed the top plate (wire connecting top plate to bottom, original style points, was good) Now able to see what I was doing. Points were badly pitted, Cleaned them up and she fired right off. Will be putting the orig condenser back in tmrw and re-check the timing. THANKS to everyone for the quick and accurate responses. Missed the cruise but there are more tmrw night.
Paul in CT
 
Going to A&L tomorrow and getting a couple of sets of points and a cond for "spares". First time this has happened to me.
Paul in CT
 
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