John S's Journal

…for awhile. But I prevailed without the ride of shame on a flat deck tow truck.

What started out as a morning of errand runs on a perfect day with the car running great to a car that failed to start after stopping for a fill up with some clear gas. With a little help from the gas station attendant and a customer, we got the car pushed away from the pumps and up in the shade of the convenience market where I could work on it without scalding on the asphalt in the sun.

I do carry a few tools, meter, ratchet, plug socket, screwdrivers, a couple of box end wrenches, etc. and I had a set of NGK’s on board.
Car would crank but not fire. Fuel filter was full, nothing obvious like loose wires, so I pulled the #1 plug and with another set of eyeballs, I cranked and he saw spark. Hmmm. Pulled the cap and it looked fine as did the rotor. Another customer in a service truck of sorts parked next to me and offered up the use of a spark tester which confirmed we had spark. Hmmm. Yanked the Coopers cans off because at this point, frustration was setting in and why not? Everything looked fine everywhere.

After every step, the car cranked but didn’t fire. Ran some Emory cloth over the points thanks to the dude in the service truck who generously offered up some and left me with a small roll. Points didn’t show any issue but why not? Not sure when in all of this spitballing the engine actually caught but it finally did so I made a beeline for home which was about 5-6 miles away. I made it about 4.5 miles when the car stumbled, the tach started bouncing and the car died as I was pulling over to the curb. My wife was on her way home from an errand and swung by to take me home to get some things and change into some clothes that were more appropriate for car work. Grabbed a spare coil because, why not? A few more tools, a cold drink and back to the car to swap coils.

That was a fail. Pulled the cap again because, why not? That’s when I found the smoking gun. Not really smoking or it would have been more obvious but the vacuum advance can spring was no longer attached to the breaker plate post. In fact, it was no anywhere to be seen. Hmmm.
The breaker plate was able to rotate freely and was moving enough to keep the car from starting.

Back to the house to search for the spare 25D with the Pertronix that I had acquired a few years ago for a spare. Ripped that junk out and put it back to a points dizzy and then back to the GT to swap it in. Fired right up and safely made it home the last half mile or so. Back to get the truck and celebrate with a cold beer. Performed an autopsy on the 25D the next day and could not find the broken half of the spring and surmised that it must have dropped out when I pulled the distributor out and was making sure the spare was lined up the same before inserting it into the car. The vacuum unit is in the mail winging its way to Jeff Schlemmer and he says he can fix the vacuum can in minutes.

I’m busy with a few weekend trips so the car will have to wait and by then the return trip from Jeff’s will hopefully happen and more adventures will ensue. Without the drama…