Car broke down

[gmerkt]

Today while I was out. My old 72 Ford Ranch Wagon, which normally is quite reliable. It started fine cold. Ran fine down the road, then after a quick stop at Home Creepo, the engine would turn over but not fire. So I got out, removed the air cleaner to see if I could see anything obvious, like a loose vacuum hose, loose wire, check carb to see if getting fuel, etc. Nothing obvious. So got back in the car, and it started right up. Hmmm.

I made another stop at Walmart, no problems. Starter turned the engine over about two revs and it was running again, but going out of the parking lot, it started running rough. Increased road speed and RPM, ran fine. I got home and it died in my driveway.

Since this car still has mechanical breaker point ignition, I checked the points and got it to run long enough to check the dwell which was within spec. Next, I checked the fuel filter to see if it was blocked, no, it was okay. It's a pretty simple lay-out with only a few vacuum lines to check. So I got out the spray can of ether with the idea that I'd get it running long enough to shoot some at the base of the carb to see if there was a vacuum leak there. But I didn't get that far.

The engine room in this car isn't very sano, but it had a nice, shiny, new ignition coil on it that I replaced about two years ago. When coils go bad, they can manifest their malfunction in several ways. Won't work cold, won't work hot, cut out under load, cut out at idle. So they can be confusing. But I'm thinking, "Made in China" may be a factor. So back into the garage I went. Where I have a stash of parts, including old Ford ignition coils, the ones with yellow tops that they haven't made in years. I picked one off the shelf, it was encrusted with baked-on engine grime. I took it back to the car, unplugged the three leads from the existing coil, and put them on the old Ford coil. The car started right away and ran fine thereafter. When I got the hitherto "new" Made In China coil off the car and looked it over, I could see some of the juice leaking out of it.

Moral of the story, I'm not gonna buy any more Made in China ignition parts. The used coil I put back on the car was made in the 1970's, still works, has lasted longer than the new Chinese coil and I will leave it on the car.

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[Certaindeaf]

Juice leakage is un-American.

 

[Mikej]

Today while I was out. My old 72 Ford Ranch Wagon, which normally is quite reliable. It started fine cold. Ran fine down the road, then after a quick stop at Home Creepo, the engine would turn over but not fire. So I got out, removed the air cleaner to see if I could see anything obvious, like a loose vacuum hose, loose wire, check carb to see if getting fuel, etc. Nothing obvious. So got back in the car, and it started right up. Hmmm.

I made another stop at Walmart, no problems. Starter turned the engine over about two revs and it was running again, but going out of the parking lot, it started running rough. Increased road speed and RPM, ran fine. I got home and it died in my driveway.

Since this car still has mechanical breaker point ignition, I checked the points and got it to run long enough to check the dwell which was within spec. Next, I checked the fuel filter to see if it was blocked, no, it was okay. It's a pretty simple lay-out with only a few vacuum lines to check. So I got out the spray can of ether with the idea that I'd get it running long enough to shoot some at the base of the carb to see if there was a vacuum leak there. But I didn't get that far.

The engine room in this car isn't very sano, but it had a nice, shiny, new ignition coil on it that I replaced about two years ago. When coils go bad, they can manifest their malfunction in several ways. Won't work cold, won't work hot, cut out under load, cut out at idle. So they can be confusing. But I'm thinking, "Made in China" may be a factor. So back into the garage I went. Where I have a stash of parts, including old Ford ignition coils, the ones with yellow tops that they haven't made in years. I picked one off the shelf, it was encrusted with baked-on engine grime. I took it back to the car, unplugged the three leads from the existing coil, and put them on the old Ford coil. The car started right away and ran fine thereafter. When I got the hitherto "new" Made In China coil off the car and looked it over, I could see some of the juice leaking out of it.

Moral of the story, I'm not gonna buy any more Made in China ignition parts. The used coil I put back on the car was made in the 1970's, still works, has lasted longer than the new Chinese coil and I will leave it on the car.

I had an ignition coil years ago that I believed was, I'll say "compromised". It turned out it was leaking juice too. But not the black tar juice from inside. It was leaking electrical juice through a small hole it had burned in the insulated tower on top and arcing to one of the connectors. Intermittently or course.

 

[Hop Sing]

I sure miss the days where a guy could trouble shoot and fix his own rig!

 

[TTSX]

I knew it was gonna be a coil before the end of the first paragraph . I learned the"made in China" lesson myself when my fuel filter popped in the Nevada desert. Only time my old diesel has broken down. At work, we primarily with on Fords on the auto side and use only Ford/motorcraft made in Mexico parts because we've been burnt by Chinese aftermarket. Especially.... Wait for it.... Ignition parts! . Glad she's got a happy engine again

 

[arakboss]

Juice leakage is un-American.

If the coil doesn't fit you must acquit

 

[Cucv]

Im sure some people have no idea what dwell is. Glad you fixed your rig.

 

[arakboss]

Im sure some people have no idea what dwell is. Glad you fixed your rig.

They probably won't dwell on it either

 

[Cucv]

They probably won't dwell on it either

hahah

 

[JohnnyMac]

Had an old 64 Bug that I had all hot-rod pimped out and had a similar issue. Put the OEM Bosch coil in the shelf and installed the purdy, shiny, chrome (Chinese) coil. It would get hot and the hotter it got, the less spark it put out. I drove from Petaluma (via hwy101) to Lincoln City, Or. 15 minutes at a time. I left late Friday evening (from USCG ET school to spend the weekend with my family so nothing was open) I was a good 2 hours into the drive when it started happening. The coil would heat up, the car would die, I would sit there until it cooled down, then lather, rinse, repeat.... Took 12 hours to drive a normal 7 hour trip home.

 

[Flopsweat]

They probably won't dwell on it either

They say comedy is mostly timing...

 

[ilikegunspdx]

I sure miss the days where a guy could trouble shoot and fix his own rig!

You still can. Except now it requires a few hours of scrounging YouTube videos or car forums.

 

[gmerkt]

I drove my 1966 Ford Fairlane for 34 years before I let it go. I bought it used in 1980 for $825, drove it over 100K miles, sold it in 2014 for $3,000. But it's never far away. 90% of the time I have dreams that involve driving or cars, it's the 66 Fairlane that's featured. Since then, I've driven my Crown Victoria 145K miles and never once has it been in a dream.

Anyway, the 66 Fairlane had breaker point ignition. There are kits available to convert such vehicles to electronics but I never did that on any of mine. One time I was driving the Fairlane home from work and it started cutting out. I made it the nine miles home. Pulled the distributor cap off to look at the points. The flat disc contacts were completely burned away, only the metal arms remained to make contact. I checked my maintenance records, I'd gone 40K plus miles since I'd changed them.

My experiences with failed coils vary. They can exhibit different symptoms when they go bad. They are a transformer with coils of wire inside. Different forms of failed windings cause them to do different things.

My Panther platform cars have the 4.6L V-8 engine. These engines have little individual coils atop each spark plug. I went 120K miles in my Crown Vic before I replaced them as a matter of preventive maintenance but none of them failed prior to that.

My mother had an old Lincoln, an 02 LS, with the 4.9L engine. It began having ignition coil failures at 55K miles. One of my daughters had a Taurus, I think it was an 05, it had a Duratech V-6 engine that started failing coils at 112K miles. So coils may last longer in the 4.6L.

 

[made in china]

I have really been itching to get some old "American iron" lately, like an early 60's American car. However, in researching the cars I am interested in, I found that many collectors/enthusiasts have been mentioning that the Chinese parts are becoming all too common. It's basically a necessary evil.

My daily driver is an Infiniti Q60. I maintain it myself. Owned it about 3 years now. Japanese made car. Lately, Nissan (Infiniti) stopped making wiper blades for it (I won't buy aftermarket anymore as they all seem to be made in China). The blades were made in Japan. The solution, per Nissan/Infiniti, is to go to the dealer and buy the Chinese aftermarket ones. They also began making the oil filters in China (Nissan branded though). Currently I can get USA made Purolator or WIX filters for my car, but for how much longer?

I don't mind foreign made stuff, really love my Japanese vehicles, but buying low-quality stuff from Commies that point nukes at us is where I draw the line!

 

[citizen a]

I don't know, sounds like time for a new car.

 

[Mikej]

Im sure some people have no idea what dwell is.

I'll have to think about it for awhile.

Another coil story. I've done a goodly amount of my own work. Small engines mostly. Wrenched on Honda motorcycles at a couple different shops. Trouble shooting. Mentioned above, coils cane be real PIAs. I've ran Husqvarna backpack blowers. They have a habit of their coils going bad. They are warranted for life though. Problem is the coils don't just stop working. They work from cold, to hot, all day long if you wanted. The problem is the slight heat build up just after they're shut off when the cooling air stops flowing. The coil will "break" a connection inside with the increased heat. After it sits and cools to a point the coil will contract and reconnect, fire right up and run great. The two blowers I had do this got stolen off my truck before they got to the point I had to fix them.

I really, REALLY HATE, having to go to a shop. I had a Craftsman chain saw years ago that had that same coil issue. The "Mechanic" told me there was no problem, it ran great. He just didn't run it long enough, or let it sit long enough. When he handed me the saw back I went out to my truck, frustrated, where I happened to have 2-3 alder logs I'd picked up from forest roads for fire wood. I went to cutting on that wood. Got that saw nice and warmed up. Let it sit for 5 minutes. No start!. Walked back into the Service center and handed it to the "mechanic" and said "Try it NOW!". Sure enough, "No-Start", and they fixed it.

Back to the Husqvarna blowers. I had a third blower (current blower) do the same thing. I would have replaced the coil myself but it was an $80.00+ part! And Husky has a lifetime ignition parts warrantee. I took it to Henderson Turf and Wear. I hate it when I'm treated like I'M an idiot. I told him what the symptoms and problem was. The so-called mechanic at the shop ran the blower, and the coil didn't die completely, but it was really hard to start. Had to pull the cord extremely hard and eventually it would take off. This punk arse, 30 something, chided me for having a non NGK plug in it as the problem. I finally just took the damned thing home and found an OEM coil on ebay for $64.00 w/free shipping and took care of it myself. That must have been about 6 years ago now. The reason I'd stayed with Huskey all these years was they're considerably quieter than Stihl and you don't have to pay the extra dollars that a dealership charges. You can get a Husky delivered to your door. This isn't a rare occurrence for coils. So for those that tinker some with their own stuff it's something to keep in mind.

 

[revjen45]

1) On the way to Sturgis in '98 my '79 Ironhead stopped charging, but still got me to civilization with 3 electrons left in the battery. We got a motel room and replaced the generator with one from the local HD shop. The faulty unit was - you guessed it - Made in China! The shaft had snapped off at the commutator. Now that's quality!!

2) Points ignition:
I had occasion to make direct comparison between points and electronic ignition on the aforementioned Ironhead, and there was no comparison. The Dyna single fire ran noticeably better and started easier. I saved all the neolithic technology stock parts in case of an EMP attack though.

 

[revjen45]

ADDENDUM
I was headed from Susanville, DPRK to Riverside, DPRK (~ 500 mi.) on my '41 Indian Chief when she (her name is Louise, after a real Indian maiden who weighed as much as the bike) quit running - at a spot where there was nothing from me to the horizon. I figured it must be the condenser since I had replaced everything else in that department before I left. I scribed an index mark to reset the timing, rotated the distributor as req'd to reach the condenser, replaced it, tightened the distributor down, and was on my merry way. There is a lot to be said for Neolithic technology.