Another no start - Crab Disy with points - Fixed!

[glennpm]

I replaced my Pertronix recently with a rebuilt by Carpenter, original crab distributor. It was working very well until it wasn't.

I hadn't driven the 32 for a couple of weeks while I pulled and worked on my rear end and torque tube. I took it out for a spin and after only 3 miles it started missing and finally stalled out. I could get it going a couple of times but it wouldn't run and I had to get a tow back home. When it did ignite, it was like it was bogged. Pumping the gas would get it to clear a bit, boggy choking sound and then died. It refused to start at all once home

It presented as no or poor gas. So I started there.

- There were minimal fines in my clear fuel filter so I replaced it.
- Gas was quite low so added 5 gallons of fresh.
- Still wouldn't start and noticed that my fuel regulator was a little low so bumped it up to 2 psi. This is where an electric fuel pump is handy.
- removed the fuel hose just before its connection to the carbs and pumped about a half cup. It was clean and pumped well
- Gas was squirting out into the carb bowls with throttle.
- Starter fluid didn't even get hint of starting

Next I checked the electrics

- Checked primary and secondary ohms and seemed fine
- Temporarily installed a new Beru coil
- Checked continuity of negative connection wire to distributor
- Checked the condenser with a VOM and looked good, i.e., not dead shorted and when connected to 12 volts, it charged up to about 2 volts and slowly dropped voltage indicated on the VOM.
- Replaced the distributor cap with a new one I had
- With my timing light, I got secondary discharge from the coil to the cap but nothing for any of the spark plug wires I checked which was three of them

At this point I had confirmed that the coil was good but no spark to the plug wires. Aha, the only thing left in the circuit was the distributor rotor.I replaced it with a new unit that I had and it started immediately!

Bad rotor but why?







Glenn