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Ignition troubles


J Shara

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I just recently installed my freshly rebuilt l24 back into my z and have had a few kinks to work out to get it running. It cranks over and it did run for the first couple times i tried to start it after i unclogged the carb fuel distribution lines. Though now i hooked up the cooling system and have been trying to tune the engine, it will not stay running. Im fairly certain it is getting intermittent spark because like i said it will crank over, run for a few seconds and then shut off as if some one switched the key off. Also if you try to crank it sometimes it will not start. So i took the high tension wire off and put it near the engine and no spark. but then if i fiddle with the connections the engine will turn over and then die. the car has a crane cams fireball coil, taylor hi-pro 8mm spark plug wires(which suck btw) stock new condenser, stock new points, stock new cap and rotor. and i had adjusted the point gap and the spark plug gap as well. I really cant think what could be causing this to happen. any thoughts would be appreciated.

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You did not mention if that coil uses an external ballast resistor?? Stock ignition system did and remember that when the key is turned to "start" power is bypassing the ballast to get higher voltage at the coil.

(1) Start by checking the two wires at the coil. Verify with a meter that you are getting 12V at the positive side of the coil (with the ignition switch in the "on" position." If there is a ballast resistor, voltage at the coil might be lower, like 9V.

(2) Check for continuity on the wire from the (-) side of the coil to the distributor. That wire should go to ground when the points are closed.

(3) Make sure point gap is correct. Sounds like points may not be opening far enough. Is there any play in distrib shaft?

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Don't discount the ignition switch contacts going bad. The start position often becomes finicky. As a test, hook the +side of the coil directly to the battery + with some spare wire, and jump the starter spade terminal to the positive starter terminal to crank it. See if it starts and runs without dying. This totally bypasses the ign. switch. Worth a shot.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well i thought I found the solution to my ignition troubles when i discovered that I had routed the points wire incorrectly under the distributor cap.As a result, the wire got chewed up by the actuation of the points. I have since then rectified this by replacing the damaged wire with one I snagged from my parts car and routed it right. The other day i pushed the z out of the garage and fiddled with the carbs and hooked up a timing light and she fired up, ran until up to operating tempereture with good oil pressure and all of a sudden it did the same thing just died as if some one switched the key off.

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Hate to dis a distributor but in my opinion if you've got that 73 dual point, I'd trash it. When I bought my car it had that stupid thing. Didn't want to put the single points because I thought it wasn't stock so it wouldn't work. Wrong. Finally put the euro dist. and what a difference. Suddenly it would fire right up, even on a cold day. Car goes faster too, I think.

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  • 1 month later...

no its a 4 speed manual. The wire that i replaced, that runsfrom the points to the negative side of the distributor, was replaced with the old crusty 40 year old wire from my parts car so i looked in the box of my new coil and there was a long black wire with loop connectors crimped to both ends. so i took the old crusty wire off and put the new wire in and readjusted the gap and lo and be hold she fired right up and ran just as sweet as can be. Im going to post a video of her running.

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