Points dizzy, rotor carboning up at coil tower?

My rotor is getting a carbon fowling on the metal part of the rotor where it runs against the coil tower. The motor runs rough or shuts off, if I wipe the carbon off it starts right up and runs a short distance and quits again. What's wrong?

 

Tune up done recently?

 

Carbon smudge from dist. cap ****on on rotor is common. Are you talking chunks of carbon or carbon ****on missing?
What kind of car? Engine? How long has it been going on? Other engine repair work done at the same time?

 

What distributor ?

 

I didn't want to say, it's not traditional, it's my Ferguson tractor. 4 cyl. It leaves a carbon spot from the cap's coil ****on, if I wipe it off it starts right up. New tune up today and new cap, the old caps ****on was worn flat.

 

Did you tune up for this concern or did problem start with tune-up?

 

It was happening before the tune up, that's why I did the tune up.

 

No start? Run bad, what?

 

The reason why I ask is the problem you describe is unusal.
When it won't start, do you have spark from coil wire and not plug wires????

 

Excessive secondary voltage demand (too wide of a plug gap or defective plug wires) can cause damage inside of the distributor such as a burned rotor or distributor contacts.Worth taking a look at those items.

 

Themoose is right. I usually see white build up on cap towers, though

 

If I wipe the carbon off the metal tab on the rotor it starts right up so I did not look any farther. The spark plug wires are relatively new. As I said before the ****on on the cap from the coil was worn or burnt flat.

 

What kind of spark plugs? Platinums take too much energy for an old ignition system. What is the gap?

 

Original champions, nothing fancy and I have been running all of this stuff for years, no changes it just started yesterday.

 

So I'll ask again, when it ****s out do you have spark at the coil wire but no spark at the plugs?
That's a real basic check.

 

Just a thought, does the dist shaft have a bunch of play, sideways or up and down?

 

I'm down in the middle of the field, when it quits I don't test things, I just pop the cap wipe off the rotor and mow until it happens again.

 

You might have noticed, we're not there.
We only have your feedback to go on.
Your description doesn't immediately elicit an immediate diagnosis.
More information is needed therefore.