Dead car, not firing on any cylinders

[rickprice]

Struggling with the car at the mo. Went to fire her up and she ran rough as a pig, then died. Now no firing, nothing.

Engine turning over OK, spark plugs wet.

One HT lead clearly stuffed, another poor, so swapped them all over for a spare set of magnecor leads I happened to have in the garage. Cleaned up tatty contacts in dizzy. I now have eight good leads and six good/2 average dizzy contacts. So to my mind, I should at least get her turning over, even if it is rubbish.

Coil is giving a spark when the main lead is held close to earth - looks pink/yellow, held at c. 1mm distance.

Is there any way to test how much energy the coil is giving out, or should I just replace it?

Does anyone have a source for these parts that is reasonable?

Cheers,

Rich

[swallet]

I assume you’ve swapped the wet plugs out?

weak spark - could be any number of things not just coil.

Ignition amp, rotor arm, dizzy cap.

You can test a coil on the bench - a quick google should show you how. If a coil is on the way out you may notice an oil leak from it or a high temp misfire before it finally gives in.


I’m having similar problems at the moment, narrowed it down to the ignition amp or a faulty sensor over fuelling

[rickprice]

Thanks for that.

Anyone know where to buy the distributor cap & rotor - part numbers etc.?

Rich

[bsdnazz]

Are you getting good sparks for each cylinder?

I wonder if the engine is flooded. If it is flooded try starting it on full throttle and keep turning the engine over for as long as it takes to fire. This can take over 60 seconds!

The first time I flooded my chim I did not know this trick until the AA man (yeah, I gave in) showed me.

[NZ fan]

If you can only get the coil to jump a 1mm spark to earth you have a very weak spark. It should easily jump 10mm with a healthy "crack". If your coil lead is good I would first try a new coil then the amplifier.

[rickprice]

So, wen back 24hrs later and fired her up.

Clouds of smoke - Green she was not, filled the bloody garage! But running well.

So possibly, ran rough because of crap leads/dizzy, and then flooded.

Now has a new set of leads, waiting for new dizzy & rotor arm to finish up.

Rich

[rickprice]

Update - nowI really do need help...

New Dizzy, rotor arm, leads.

Fired up fine, for a minute. Walked away.

Came back 3 hours later, started rough as hell again, plopped dead and now turning over and over again. Does not want to fire at all, even after a couple of minutes turning.

Again, have left the fuel to evaporate and it may start again but this is the second time this has happened and now I'm all nervous about getting in her lest I find myself somewhere I don't want to be for a day or two.

Anybody got any ideas / suggestions?

Thanks,

Rich

[carsy]

Am i reading this right ? You fired her up, ran for about a minute and then switched off. Came back a few hours later and she wouldnt start ?

If this is the case you have probably flooded again as they run far too rich on initial cold start up. If its flooded they can be a bugger to get going again.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Apologies if I'm teaching grandma to suck eggs, but are you aware that planting the throttle fully down on the floor as you crank will prevent further fuel injection, and could eventually get the engine started?

[rickprice]

When I first got her going, I left her running in a cloud of smoke for about an hour. Smoke cleared after about 5 minutes.

So I then changed the dizzy & rotor, fired her up again for a couple of minutes to check all was well, and walked away feeling smug.

My main worry is that she ran so rough on start-up - felt like half the cylinders weren't firing, and then died after 10 secs.

Any bright ideas what might cause a really rough running engine on startup, that then dies?

[Barreti]

Have you swapped out the coil with a known good one like NZ Fan suggested.
Like he says, a 1mm spark is pathetically weak.

[s p a c e m a n]

5 minutes of smoke?

[swallet]

To my mind (and having had a similar problem) if the car is constantly flooding you either have
A) no or insufficient spark
B) too much fuel being added by the efi for the engine conditions

My money would be on the former.

You say the dizzy cap , rotor and leads are new - are they good quality (see my earlier topic about pattern rotor arms?
Are you still using the same spark plugs which have now been flooded several times? If so I'd pull them and give them a good dry (wire brush and then heat up really hot with blow torch), drying with a towel or in the oven isn't good enough. If they've been badly flooded or running rich they will not be producing a good spark. Make sure they are the right plugs for the job as well (B7ecs or similar).
Once you are 100% that the spark is good then look elsewhere. As someone else said if you look at the spark from the king lead this should be really meaty and able to jump 10mm with ease.

[swallet]

s p a c e m a n said:

5 minutes of smoke?

Agree??!
I assume the op just means water vapour as you'd get with any cold engine in this weather as opposed to proper smoke.

[rickprice]

s p a c e m a n said:

5 minutes of smoke?

Well, enough smoke to half-fill the garage so it looked like the moors in hound of the baskervilles.

Might not have gone on producing that for five minutes but took about ten to clear...

Green it was not!

[s p a c e m a n]

I would be extra worried if the smoke was green

What was the smoke, even a few minutes of water vapour from warm up sounds excessive to me unless you live way up north

[QBee]

Coil or ignition amplifier are the usual suspects in cases like these. Mine runs rough when damp, but there's no reason why yours should be damp. Of course, if the above are faulty, even a little dampness will give you big problems.

I work in your area, and am down there a couple of days next week. While it would be a real hardship to take my Chim rather than the Audi (yes, I have one of those too), I think I can find my spare set of leads and plugs and we can try swapping bits off my car onto yours if you like.

[rickprice]

It's a really kind offer. I think for themoment I'll swap the coil out - not too expensive, then see.

Cheers

Rich

[shake n bake]

i'd put a new set of plugs before tinkering with anything else.

[EGB]

Barreti said:

Have you swapped out the coil with a known good one like NZ Fan suggested.
Like he says, a 1mm spark is pathetically weak.

Mine does a 13mm spark. I have a simple Gunson tool to measure. Can borrow if you wish Richard..