Nu Rex breaker plate points problem.

[john charlton]

Would not start problem traced to the points . Power was getting to the points but one of the points "buttons" had lost continuity not sure if the moving or the fixed one . Just wondered if anyone else had had this happen. The Nu Rex breaker plate setup was fairly new with few miles on it .

John in clear cold night Suffolk County England .

[Keith True]

I think a lot of people discovered this years ago.The plates were OK,but both the points and condensers seem to be junk.I had a new set out of the box that wouldn't pass juice about 15 years ago.

[TJMack]

Be sure the little brass clip that came attached to the points on the new style upper plate has been removed. It's for use with a different lower plate that has a brass plate for picking up the voltage without using a wire.


When I got my new plate I was looking at it and wondering what that clip was for. I could see that if I just put the plate in without removing the clip I would have been stumped as to why no power went to the points since I was (and still am) using the normal wire from the lower plate to the points.


Here's a picture of the clip:

[Keith True]

It looks like you got half of the kit for the wireless conversion.That brass tab doesn't come with all the modern plate conversions.

[Marvin/TN]

Originally Posted by john charlton

Would not start problem traced to the points . Power was getting to the points but one of the points "buttons" had lost continuity not sure if the moving or the fixed one . Just wondered if anyone else had had this happen. The Nu Rex breaker plate setup was fairly new with few miles on it .

John in clear cold night Suffolk County England .

John, I spent many a clear cold night out on the Flt line at RAF Mildenhall back in the early 1960's. I don't think there is anyplace that is colder than a Flt line working on airplanes.

[3.6rs]

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Originally Posted by Keith True

I think a lot of people discovered this years ago.The plates were OK,but both the points and condensers seem to be junk.I had a new set out of the box that wouldn't pass juice about 15 years ago.

I had the same with new points !

[john charlton]

The Nu Rex setup had been in the car for about 1000 miles with no problem . The car had not been started for a few months but I dont see how that could have affected the points . There was voltage at the points so you could flash them with a broader screwdriver which touched the fixed part and pivot part but when I inserted the screwdriver between open points no voltage so one of the points "buttons" had lost electrical contact ,very confusing to start with . I installed a new set of points, the one with the condenser on the plate and swapped over the brass clip from the Nu Rex and we are now back in business .

John in dismal snow and rain on the way Spring Time Suffolk County England .

[Benson]

John,

Go to Nurex webpage and watch install video. Did you put electrical tape on LOWER plate as detailed in first minute or two of YouTube video?

I Found that the end of lower plate rubbed on dist housing until paint rubbed off and short started happening all the time ... Then I found problem. At first it was VERY Intermittent!

I found cause Before I saw video and fixed by bending the lower plate arm for condenser toward the center. Tape works also...

[JOHN CT]

Did you try to call them?
I don’t remember his name, great guy he does pick up the phone
http://www.nurex.com/

[john charlton]

Hi Benson

Thanks for your input . I have seen the You Tube before and am mystified why he used tape . I just cut the tang clean off or bend it as you say . If I think I might go back to original I would just bend it . The Nu Rex setup I have does not have that tang and is a wireless design with a semi circular brass plate on the lower plate which engages a brass clip on the top plate so no wire pigtail .

John in same place same weather .

[Benson]

John,

I saw one version of wireless plate which had a problem with the rivets being loose and of course the connection was flakey ... It has been awhile but as I remember there were two pieces involved ... The brass one you spoke of and another angled piece to connect to the armoured cable.

[Benson]

One time I had problem with that REPRO skinny 3/8ths inch armored cable where the brass rivet on end of wire which contacts lower plate in distributor was not soldered.

They had just crimped it and if you pulled and pushed in / out on rivet it made a clicking sound.

I remember that it happened often enough that Steve Becker at Berts stopped selling this part until vender fixed the problem. This was about five or ten years ago.

There still might be some of these cables out there.

I made use of my training and soldered the rivet.

[Benson]

Originally Posted by john charlton

Hi Benson

Thanks for your input . I have seen the You Tube before and am mystified why he used tape . I just cut the tang clean off or bend it as you say . If I think I might go back to original I would just bend it . The Nu Rex setup I have does not have that tang and is a wireless design with a semi circular brass plate on the lower plate which engages a brass clip on the top plate so no wire pigtail .

John in same place same weather .

Yes tape is strange choice ... I thought about using shrink tubing also.

[TJMack]

Originally Posted by Benson

Yes tape is strange choice ... I thought about using shrink tubing also.

That's what I did as well; bent the tab and added shrink tube. We all know how tape unravels after a while. One thing I didn't understand was why they said to screw the contact cable in only a couple turns. Was it because of those loose rivets mentioned earlier?

[Benson]

Originally Posted by TJMack

That's what I did as well; bent the tab and added shrink tube. We all know how tape unravels after a while. One thing I didn't understand was why they said to screw the contact cable in only a couple turns. Was it because of those loose rivets mentioned earlier?

The reason for screwing cable in only a few turns is that if you turn too far the plate that the cable end contacts can be bent so that it shorts out on dist housing. This shorts cable to ground making it appear that the points are closed all the time.

This happens with the stock setup with condenser in stock position, especially if you are using REPRO lower plate where the metal is thinner than FORD parts.

[TJMack]

Originally Posted by Benson

The reason for screwing cable in only a few turns is that if you turn too far the plate that the cable end contacts can be bend so that it shorts out on dist housing. This shorts cable to ground making it appear that the points are closed all the time.

This happens with the stock setup with condenser in stock position, especially if you are using REPRO lower plate where the metal is thinner than FORD parts.

That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

[Don S]

I had trouble With the NewRex lower plate where the brass tab from the upper plate rubs on it. Motor would die while doing 40 or so no warning. To get home I found out that retarding the timing ,could start car and get going. If I tried to advance the timing it would stop. Found out that the button on the bottom of the brass tab had etched badly where the timing was mostly set while driving. I changed the lower plate to one with a longer wire to connect to upper plate. No problems since