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By Rods - 16 Years Ago
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First I know I should have electronic points but cash crunch right now so here we go... 312 motor. Set the points to .015. Car fires right up and idles. Press on gas car dies. Checked points and the gap was now almost 1/8". Readjusted and car fired right up. Ran fine for a while, put into gear and died. Checked points and found them to be completely closed. Readjusted and started right up. This time I was able to drive about 2 blocks and it died. Looked at points and they were wide open. Adjusted and started up and went home. Checked each time to make sure the set screw was tight and it was. Adjusted each time on the high point of each lobe. Distributor is bolted down and does not move. Little movement in the shaft but no more and expected. Any ideas to what is causing this?
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By charliemccraney - 16 Years Ago
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Are the screws holding the plate on which the points are fastened tight?
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By Rods - 16 Years Ago
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I did notice when I push down on the plate it did have some up/down give to it. Should it be solid without and movement? Rod
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By charliemccraney - 16 Years Ago
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It should not move up and down. Make sure your screws are present, and tight. It should rotate, for the vacuum advance. I suppose, if that is worn enough it may move up and down.
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By Rods - 16 Years Ago
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I will check this tonight. It does tilt down when you push on it. I wonder if this could be the gremlin...Appreciate your help.
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By Nick Brann - 16 Years Ago
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It seems that Charlie has nailed your problem. Same thing happened to me on our '57 T-Bird with tach drive distributor. It would die on me at a stop light, usually it would restart. The last time it wouldn't start, I checked the points and they were way off. Reset them and drove home. Later I discovered that one of the two screws that hold the breaker plate to the dist. housing was missing. I located the hole, replaced it and it has been fine ever since. The embarrassing part was that I had had the distributor out to freshen it up and never noticed the missing screw. Good luck, Nick Brann - K.C., MO
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By Rods - 16 Years Ago
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I pulled the points and condenser and could not see any other screws holding it down. I unhooked the vacuum linkage and it spun fine but does wobble up and down. The 3 set screws are all in place and tight but that plate sure seems loose to me. I found a replacement distributor for $60 at autozone. Much cheaper than the $139 one on line. It will be in on Thursday. Will check it to make sure. If I remove those 3 set screws around the edge, will the plate come out? R
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By charliemccraney - 16 Years Ago
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The plate should come out. The advance mechanism is under that plate.
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By Rods - 16 Years Ago
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I pulled the plate last night and everything seems to be OK. There is some "wiggle" room in the plate which might be just enough to cause it to go out of whack but still seems hard for me to grasp that would shut the points down/ or open depending on which time, after such a short time of running. It does not look worn. There is a bit of a groove in the dist. where this part seeds down into but it in there solid. Any other possible reasons for the points to act like this? Rod
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By Ted - 16 Years Ago
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The shaft being loose in the distributor will make point adjustment inconsistent. Just try to move the shaft at its top and see how much side movement is evident. More than just a few thousandts will be too much.
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By charliemccraney - 16 Years Ago
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If all of the screws are tight it should not move. Is the points cam moving around??
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By Rods - 16 Years Ago
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I agree, it should not have any movement. Both screws were tight on the points, the cam lobes are solid and not worn. The plate itself was tight. I did pull the plate, cleaned it up and found points where the inside cover would hit "divots" where it would catch. Perhaps this is what could be causing the problem. I just am not sure. We will see after cleaning it up, if I need to replace the whole thing. We will know tonight.
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By Rods - 16 Years Ago
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Well failure of the distributor. LOUSY AUTOZONE. Why say it will fit when it won't. 2" too short.
I put everything back together and could not get it to start. I checked and have 11.93 volts going to the coil resistor and 5.3v coming out of the resistor to the coil. I pulled the wire from the coil to the dist and turned the motor over. No spark.
Thoughts?
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By pegleg - 16 Years Ago
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You may have the wrong distibutor. I've seen a number of the Autozone units and they work pretty good. What numbers are on the side of your distributor housing?
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By charliemccraney - 16 Years Ago
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If it's for the T-bird, Autozone won't have the correct one. Will the lack of a tach drive make it 2" shorter?
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By Hoosier Hurricane - 16 Years Ago
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The small wire from the coil to the distrubutor, and ultimately to the points, may be grounded. When checking the voltage out of the resistor, turn the engine slowly, and when the points open you should read 11+ volts, when they close, 5+ volts. If the voltage stays at 5+, either the wire is grounded or the points don't open.
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By Rods - 16 Years Ago
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The AZ one does not have the 2" mechanical tach. Wonder why they did not indicate that on the spec sheet... Me bad! So I have the wire that connects to the coil from the distributor does touch the inside of the distributor. I will put some sort of rubber spacer in there to keep the condenser wire from touching.
Thank you for your help. Will try it again...
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By Rods - 16 Years Ago
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Well figured it out... A stupid 2 cent washer is all it took. Apparently when I took the distributor apart last week the paper insulator mush have fallen apart so when I put everything back together I did not see it, so when I tightened everything down, I grounded the condenser wire to the connecting wire to the coil... Found a hard plastic washer just the right size, put it on and OLD IRON fired right up. Never seemed to run better. Actually was able to take it to my first car show at a local Baptist church (man they throw good car shows) and was the only bird there (other than a 62) with over 450 cars in attendance. After cleaning up the points plate and adjusting it slightly so it did not seed in the ruts, it did not seem to be a problem. I think I will still pull the dist. over the winter and have ti redone just so it is finished. Thank you all very much for pointing me int he right direction. I really appreciate you each taking time to write.
Rod
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By Hoosier Hurricane - 16 Years Ago
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Rod: Welcome to the world of trouble shooting. Spend days, weeks, months, years trying to find the problem, and when you find it it only takes a few minutes to fix it. Glad you got it running well.
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By Eddie Paskey - 16 Years Ago
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Hey Rod; What is really great about your find is that you admited it, and did not try to bland someone else, we all appreciate your honesty and williness to accept help. Keep-on keepin'on!! You are doing Great!! God Bless Eddie
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