I have a 56 customline thats misfiring. the coil is good, dist. good, condenser im not sure about. Could the condenser be my problem?
what happened was i was fixing some wiring and it popped the coil resistor. might of fried the electric choke too. thats why i was thinking condenser. but thanks! red
Usually if your condensor is shot the car won't start. When was the last time that you tunned it? Reason I ask is that a young person had a GMC pickup a while back that was hard to start turned out that the points had not been changed in 15 years. Start a step by step diagnosis. First pop the top off of the air cleaner and look at the choke. is it slammed shut after the car is warmed? if not you just ruled that out. Is it a constant miss? Start pulling plug wires, one at a time and see which one does not change the way that the car runs. So you found the offending cylinder. Now you got to pull the plug and see if it is shot. The plug is good, what about the spark plug wire? Snag an OHM meter and check the resistance. remember what it says then look for another plug wire about the same length and compair them. That's good not open the distributer, is the terminal on the cap for that plug burnt? What does your rotor look like? I had a mallory Dual point in my 312 when I was a kid, I developed a hell of a miss at th track and after checking I discovered that the tine on the rotor was flipping and flopping around. OK everything checks out electrically, now it is time for a leak down test. Uh how far down the list do you want me to go?
How does that happen exactly ? Did you ground the hot coil wire ? Is that a combo choke wire. Did you hot up the - side of coil?
how do you know that? have you checked/replaced the points? have you set the dwell? coils can go bad...have you had it tested? yes , it can be the condenser..i'd try replacing it i have a old JC Whitney coil and condenser tester , but it may be hard to find someone there to check them
You might also check the point gap at all eight lobes of the distributor cam. If the point gap is close and one was warn a little more than others it will cause a mis-fire on that cylinder. This shows up very distinctly on a scope parade pattern. Dave.
Still running the Y-block? Still got a full set of pushrods? Its a steady miss for sure if you are dealing with the old skinny "bar type" (non-tubular) pushrods. Worth pulling the covers to have a looksee. The "new" ****py gas, infrequent running has caused more than a few to have a binding valve guide and bend or jump one out of the rocker adjuster. Most can be fished right up - but if it made it down into the valley, get a replacement and fit it right in there. I've had more than a few apart and found 50 years of "extra" pushrods in there - on a Y there's nothing they can get in to.
Thanks all for the input. i replaced condenser. still idling really low then will eventually die. The reason i dont think the dist is bad or the wires is because it was working fine until i messed with wiring which in turn blew the resistor, burned some wires and thats when it all started. havent replaced coil yet but im thinking thats next. red
It is still more likely to be the cap, spark plug, or spark plug wires then it is the coil. Sounds like you are just guessing instead of checking. Edit: Just reread your last post, is it still misfiring or just idling to slow and then dying, might not even be ignition related if that is the case.
the dist cap is fairly new. everything was working fine leading up to when i was messin around with wiring. I checked the cap and the points are still normal and the rotor looks the same as the new one i just bought. When i popped the ballast resistor is when everything went bad and that was bolted to the coil. it does miss then itll drop real low then speed up a little then just shut off all together. Im new to this whole thing so when i messed something up i just have to do trial and error.
i'm not sure how and why the ballast resistor "popped" , but the first thing i would check are the points. are you sure they are ok and not burnt? gap/dwell set properly?
Doesn't anybody do tune ups any more? I would never think of replacing just a condenser and not doing a complete tune up unless it was tuned up with brand new parts in the last year. Points, plugs, condenser, wires, rotor ****on and dist. cap are just automatics for me. Every new car to me gets a tune up. These cars were supposed to be tuned up every 10K. A gas station would have a scope to look at the condition of the parts. I don't replace wires every time after that but I sure do the first time I work on it. Without a scope you can't look at the wires and tell if they are any good. Piecemeal parts replacement is not a smart way to take care of a car IMHO That said, I do gl*** bead my plugs when they start to get fouled from not being exercised regularly. The electrode is not worn out. It's just sooty from lack of extended usage.
WIRE INTO THE DIST IS SHORTING OUT WHEN ALIGHNED TO THE NEAREST PLUG WIRE. ya said ya fried some wires ... elec take tha path of least resisitance this wire if original is crispy by now anyway now zorched by you ... also replace engine ground strap.. sounds the short you found again went thru the only wires it had to work with
Great memories, Greenbird! Used to replace fallen solid pushrods regularly at the shop in the late '50s. Ditto on tearing them apart and finding a few in the valley...LOL
ok so i replaced the right condenser, rotor, dist cap, new engine ground strap, new wire into the distributor. runs sort of better but will still die on me. Sometimes it wont even turn over itll just click then make a buzz sound. havent done the coil yet, dont have a ohmeter.
Low battery will cause you grief. Make you think you're seeing ghosts and make you chase gremlins. Still waiting to here how you popped a resister whatever the hell that means
could be a low battery. Could it be the alternator? electrical is kicking my ***. I blew that resistor by taking the power to the tail lights headlights and turn signal fuse and connecting them with the wires in the steering column. then i went to look at a wiring diagram and i smelled smoke so i looked all around and the resistor wire was snapped.
1. What Tommy said above is correct, back when the vast majority of cars and trucks ran points tune ups were done at 10K miles on most rigs that the owners wanted to run right. That is why the tune up man in a dealership was usually the top money maker in the shop. If you shorted something out in the column or under the dash and blew the resistor that means that the resistor was in the route to ground for what ever you shorted out and everything in the ignition primary circuit could be suspect. That means you need to check the wire from the switch to the resistor to make sure it hasn't shorted out or melted where it may shorting on occasion. If it shorted through the resistor and coil it shorted through the points as they are what makes ground for the coil to build up it's magnetic field that collapses when the points open causing the spark to go to the plug. If it were me I'd change the points and set them correctly. Then set the timing and then adjust the carb so you get the idle speed where it needs to be.
The Jalopy Journal
