Points Pointing Me Into Trouble

[TedAllen]

Keith,
My wife's a star washer....you should see her in action with a Hotpoint
Ted

[AlanBartlett]

Even though Ive been through all the connections and set up and cleaned the points its still not running even, as soon as you give the throttle a push its like one of the cylinders cut in and out, I think it maybe time for yet another head gasket change.

Turns out its the coil which is surprisingly annoying as I replaced before scotland, which was a lil over a month ago. So Ive put the older one on their for now it seems to be working better than the newer one, also awaiting another condensor to try that too.

I was wrong again, I have come to the conclusion it was the points after all cleaned and set the gap and there working fine now, now for the latest bump in my road, which is the carburettor has randomly started over revving itself like the whole flap on the intake controling the amount of fuel which goes to the plugs has become loose and now is over revving, anyone know how to tighten this up? Or is it more complicated to solve I'm unsure as Ive never really touched the carb.

[AlanBartlett]

I still have an elusive miss fire, , Ive gone through everything, everything is connected and all connections are clean. This past week you seem to get it working one day, get it out the next and another problem develops, finally solved my leaky petrol pipe. My ongoing battle with this miss fire is driving me insane. The latest thing I've done is cleaned the points and reset the gap and now its not starting, yet there is a spark at the points, its orangy if that helps. Some times it runs well for like 10 mins then it develops into a missfire.

The colour of the points are whitish, with black bits on them before i emeryied them, Now that ive gone over them with emery and petrol they still have the black patches on them.

Any suggestions.

[TedAllen]

Alan,
It must be time to start changing things methodically if you have spares.
Start with a pair of plugs, I have just bought a car for my son in law which was missing on one pot on tickover but ran great when revved...it was a plug..old, worn and a massive gap. Then plug leads. I would change the points, especially if they have been cleaned with emery paper. I once had a solid brass rotor arm fail on me as if I had switched off the engine, I was on the M6 contraflow towing a trailer with a classic car on it....fun! I took everything apart then found a spare arm in my toolbox and it started first swing...it's usually something that seems ok when you first check things out. Tracking dizzy cap ? Tracking across top of coil ? Centre electrode in cap? Run the engine at night and look for 'lightening'. Can't think of anything else electrical but also try a compression check before you decapitate her. Try a test run between each check. Hopefully NZ Keith will be able to add to this. Pity you're not closer to Manchester.
Good luck
Ted

[AlanBartlett]

Right then I think I've found a conclusion Just as a try I swapped round the ht leads so swapped left to right and switched them over and went for a run, point gap set at 12 thou spark plug at 25 thou and guess what not a back fire or missfire in sight perhaps one or two misfire partly I had it in the wrong gear at the time but it went well very well. So I'm leaving it now over night and see what happens tommorrow fingers crossed problem is solved if not I will try new leads which sound to be the problem.

[Keith Andrews]

What ht leads are u using, old ones?
have u looked at them at night engine running at above idle rpms?
Inspected the end contacts, any corrosion? and the inside of the cap where HT leads go in?
Ends where ht leads connect to the plug connector, does the core come out the end then bend back under the crimp? or a copper wire pushed up, then bent around under the crimp?

I think i may have mentioned this in a previous post???

[AlanBartlett]

The Ht leads are new, bought, just over a year ago, to start the engine. Or should they be replaced?

The copper washers are on the end and the wire bent underneath to keep the washer on.

The Contacts I have inspected and as a result cut off the copperoxide bluey greeny coloured wire and gradually shortening the wire as they were made on the long side.