Got some grief from a friend about my dirty engine bay. Cleaned it up, including the spark and coil wire. Disrupted something in the right bank coil wire as it would then began to cut out and I would lose the right bank. Wiggle the wire and it started up no problem with full power until the vibration made it loose again. Even did a cable tie to hold it in place. Long story short, replaced with a new coil wire. Yes, the screw pierced the wire insulation. Inserted the centre post, buttoned everything up and the car won't start. Is there something else I should have done? Yes to the obvious, the battery is fully charged and there is fuel in the tank LOL.
Did you test the resistance of the wire to make sure the stud pierced it properly? also, I forgot to put the center spring back in once too.
I was just thinking to myself as well to do just that very thing of checking the resistance. So, will do that tomorrow. Seems silly to have to do that. But then I saw the thickness of the centre wire and thought, that is what I have to connect to? Yes, I did put the centre spring back LOL.
I had a similar problem last week. Car was running rough. Turns out the left side coil wire was shorting out and had melted half the boot. I went to Oreilly and bought an Excel coil wire. It had all the parts to make an identical coil wire, except it's yellow. Worked perfectly.
I finally got around to checking the wire resistance (too much else on the go). Anyway, resistance looks good (wire is approx. 16 inches long and I am getting 12,000 to 16,000 Ohms (it varies if my finger is touching the wire end LOL). So, that looks good. The one thing is that I can't even get it to run on one bank. So, silly me in my initial haste, but I didn't disconnect the battery. Perhaps I blew a fuse or shorted a relay? My next check.
I should also add that the resistance was measured through the carbon pin in the distributor cap to the ignition coil end.
Not for a stock TR coil wire = should be something more like 1100 Ohm or less (depending on the carbon button used). You can also measure the resistance from the spark plug end to the metal piece in the dist cap that holds the carbon button (i.e., just the wire itself) = that should be something like ~700 Ohms.
Thanks. Might have been the way I was holding the leads to the wire, because I went back to check the old coil wire, the new wire (and a spare new wire) and yes, from the carbon button to the coil end of the wire, I am reading 700 to 1100 Ohms. Battery voltage is 13.3 volts. What confuses me is that the left bank (cylinders 1-6) should still start I believe. All I did was replace the right side coil wire. Now I will check for spark (it does seem to have fuel as after a few tries to turn over, it will almost diesel to start as there is a definite cough but no catch). But I will check for fuel pressure, etc. I think I may also have to check the coils. Just confused about this and feeling like I'm going down a rabbit hole, but not quite sure which direction I'm being led in.
Problem sorted out and solved - after about 5 hours. Go figure, fuel compensator harness was not fully plugged in due to the harness lock cap being worn. Gotta love vintage cars. You touch one thing and something else goes sideways.
Glad it's running well again, but don't follow your description -- can you post a photo or add more description or perhaps show where/what it is in an SPC figure link?
