After being very proud of myself sorting out the distributor, the Ghia has now thrown another problem at me!

Over the last week or so the engine has been dying on me, usually when trying to start up.  It'll turn and start fine but will stop running for a second or two, usually coming back to life again before completely stalling.  After it's warmed up (if I manage to keep it running that long!) it'll perform OK, but occasionally do its dying trick whilst running.  On Sunday it partially died when I was on 153 - the engine was running and pushing the accelerator did turn the engine more but without enough power to pick up speed.  10 seconds later and it came back to life again.

This morning it did it's trick a few times but then refused to start at all

I checked a few things quickly and here's what I've got so far:

- Electronic cut-out valve on the carb is working (if I plug/unplug the wire whilst the ignition on there's a definite and loud click)
- I put a timing light over spark plug wire #1 and there was NO strobe when I turned the engine on the starter.
- Ignition power appears to be getting to the coil OK
- Points are correctly making/breaking (tested resistance)

It looks like there's a problem with the high tension pwoer getting from the coil to the distributor - so my guess from all this is that either the coil or the condenser has failed.

Any further tests I can carry out to locate the problem?

Thanks all!

I was in a rush this morning so admittedly didn't fully test everything.  I've got a voltmeter so can test the voltage to the coil easily enough (I assume just between the two connectors on the base of it?)

The distributor is properly clamped.  Point gap is pretty much OK (set with a feeler gauge - I have a dwell meter but haven't used it yet).  It's definitely making & breaking contact (resitance tested between green wire coming into dist and internal base of dist).

Timing is not bad but again needs perfecting.

The fact that the engine was running pretty much smooothly indicates to me that the point gap/timing is probably OK (well, OK enough to let the engine run anyway or at least make an attempt at starting up).

It could be a fuel problem (knowing nothing about the history of the engine leaves me to suspect everything!) especially as the fuel line has been re-run at some point and that was my first guess anyway.  However, lack of timing strobe light when I try & start the engine points me to electrical problem.

I'll check the volts across the coil tonight.  I'm pretty sure there's power as the cutout valve operates fine and that connects to the black wire on the coil.  

I'll try testing for fuel delivery as well - I assume that removing the pipe from the pump to the carb & turning the engine should produce fuel!

The car won't start so it's not easy to set the timing but I'll have a try tonight with the help of a few manuals

The engine hasn't had a major tune up since I got hold of it (end of Dec) which never helps.  There's undoubtedly more than one problem with the engine, I'm just trying to fix each bit at a time!

The good news is I found the problem and you were right - something in the dist has definitely been messing with me!

The wire that goes into the distributor and connects to the points was shorting against the dizzy case.  I moved the wire by hand, fired up the engine and it ran perfectly

As you can see from the picture below it's been "fixed" in the past with some very bad gluing.  Is it worth trying to fix it up again myself or is it easy enough jsut to get a new distributor?

** EDIT: why doesn't work??!! Link is:
http://www.matthewbutt.co.uk/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core:DownloadItem&g2_itemId=75&g2_serialNumber=1

OK, looks like I'm doing a distributor overhaul this weekend then

I did get a replacement set of points from AutoZone but the wire connected to the points was coming out the wrong way (if that makes sense!) so will need to relpace it.  I'll try & get a rotor & maybe cap as well, probably also HT leads (the spark plug end rubber boots are burnt & hard!).  I changed 3 plugs the other week but couldn't get the fourth out

Whoops. I don`t how the smilie got where it is , Should read (W-8) :lol:

Hey ,I just saw Travis`s  post and the pic. He is correct about the "goop' being the mounting hole for the condenser. One more thing,if the hole is square , you have to have a strange little forked clamp to hold the cond. to the case. Bosch Please!

Jim Lockhart should have them. You will need to get the little screw that holds the condenser clamp also