Electrical problem, where to start???

[Chris Portinga]

I started my cobra and ran 100 feet down the road and it killed. Everything else electrical seems fine, lights, starter cranks the engine, etc are all running. Just no ignition. I have a carb setup, Ford ignition, coil, crate distributor on the 460/535. Where would any of you look first? Thanks for the help!!!

[Michael C Henry]

Check for power at the coil first. I take it you're sure you have fuel in the carbs? If you have gasoline at carbs and power at the coil, when cranking is there any oil pressure . If no oil pressue then Chances are if you remove the distributor cap it isn't going around either. Then it is more that likely the little 1/8x3/4 pin in the distributor drive gear. Easy fix if you have the roll pins. Get several ( for extras)from Summit -MSD true (roll ) pins. If the oil pump still turns and it was due to stiff cold oil. If a foregn object is blocking the oil pump it gets more serious.
Next time don't get carried away with the throttle until you have warm oil. Once you've done it, you'll see it isn't hard to fix and nothing gets damaged this way. It's a great built in safety like a fuse.
Lrt us know what is happening.

[Chris Portinga]

Thanks for the direction... as I was writing the question I had the gas thought which I'll check first. I'll let you know what I find.

[A Cobra]

Chris, how was the engine running? Was it a smooth idle or did it spudder before it stalled. Was this the first start?

[Chris Portinga]

Everything was running normally. I have 11,000 miles on the car. I had run it about 2 miles to the gas station, stopped to fill, started and got a hundred feet... it was all normal to that point.

I just checked the fuel supply and all is normal. I have good fuel pressure and the boosters are shooting plenty of fuel. I pulled the coil off and I'll test it tomorrow.

Any other ideas?

[Michael C Henry]

Do you have spark at the plugs. In 69 a friend that I worked with, had driven his 1963 ford to the store. Went to leave and it wouldn't start. We towed it all over town . When we tested for spark we pulled a spark wire and cranked the engine over. it would spark a few times and we'd reinstall the plug wire. So we were satisfied that it had spark =yes it had spark. A week or so later another guy at work in the wharehouse bet us he knew what the problem was . We had the taken a lot apart. This guy had about an hour head start on us, he got off work earlier. When we got to my house the car was running . Turned out to be the condenser in the distributor. When we tested for sparked a few times and then we'd reinstall the plug wire. Unbeknown to us that is about the time when it would quit sparking. I bought a coil - condenser tester ,volt -amp- dwell meter, and an OHM meter. I was't going to get caught again. A few years later they started changing to trasnsisterized ignitions.
My replica quit when leaving a stop light, it just died. I had the guy behind me help push it into a parking lot. Turned out he ran a local service shop. So he and I towed it to his shop. He found that the contacts in the fuse holder were corroeded and not making a good connection with the fuses. He replaced the multiple fuse holder. The parts were about 20 bucks labor was 120 . I now carry a test light in the trunk tool kit.

[Chris Portinga]

I had the coil checked with an ohm meter and it was fine (per the guy at the parts store). Mike H says to check for power at the coil. What exactly does that mean? I'm an electrical amateur... help anyone? I have a horseshoe style connector on my old school coil...

[Jim Barnett]

HELP!! Hey guys: I have pretty much the same problem. When I was driving my Cobra, it just died!! I have replaced the MSD 6 unit AND put a new MSD coil in the car. It has a 351C and yesterday my son and I tried to troubleshoot the problem. We now get spark FROM the COIL to the MSD 8580 Billet distributor, but NO spark out of it to the plugs. My son thinks we need to replace the magnetic pickup, PN 84661. He says those are always going bad in MSD distributors(??). Since I am NOT very good with electrical issues, does anyone here know IF that pickup could be the problem?? (we are also getting fuel to the carb). I hate to have to buy an entire new 8580 distributor because they are expensive. I can get the pickup for around $25.00. The 8580 that I have looks fine other than that. THANKS for the assist guys!!!

[Ron61]

Jim,

If you are getting a good spark from the coil through the big lead that plugs into the center of the distributor, that eliminates the pick up as that is what makes and breaks the flow to cause the coil to step up your voltage. The voltage goes into the center of the distributor cap and the rotor is what makes contact inside the cap and feeds juice to each plug. Take a look at the center contact inside the coil and the rotor contact and make sure they aren't burned or dirty. Also make sure that the rotor is making contact with each terminal that a plug wire goes to as it turns.

Ron

[Rick Parker]

http://www.msdignition.com/pdf/tech%.../tb_top_10.pdf

Check #9 here!

[Michael C Henry]

The coil will have continues 12V of power on the ignition switched terminal. the other terminal is connected to the distributor, that pulses. When checking for spark at the plugs geg a test plug , and ground it in a position where you can watch it when cranking the engine over. They sell a test plug with an attached alligator clip . You can clamp it to a ground and know it isn't going to flop into the fan or the like.
Did you ever remove the distributor cap and enshure that the distributor shaft and rotor are revolving?Also check to see if you have damaged the rotor .

[Chris Portinga]

I ended up getting a new ignition and completely rewiring my engine. All good!!! It was my ignition box that failed.

[Rwillia4]

What type of igntion were you using?

[Chris Portinga]

The one that failed was called an extra energy ignition Ford was selling. They don't sell it any more. It was manufactured for Ford by MSD.

[Michael C Henry]

My wife and I returned from vacation to find my daughters Escort in front of our house, Her car had had stopped and my wifes uncle and my son were trying a new ignition modulle. I found that the new module wasn't installed correctly to start with. Then I noticed that the distributor rotor wasn't turning . Timing belt broke. I now have all the tools to to do that job . I repaired a friend of my daughters Escort with the same problem and got stiffed . I'm not so generous now.
When I rebuilt my engine and installed a bunch of upgrades to include a new ignition box. I went through the break in procedure but when I actually tried to drive the car somewhere after a mile or so the car would start missing and getting worse the farther it went. It would run so bad that I was sure that the engine would stop at the next light. But as it turned out that the engine would idle just fine Getting the car moving was the problem. The spark plugs would be all black. My new Mallory Hy-Fire VI came with a shorting plug that bypassed the CD box from the system. When I used the shorting plug things were much better. The Mallory unit was just within the warranty period. I sent it in to Summit and the replacement worked just fine.
I have had the distributor drive gear pin shear twice so far. Cold oil and too much throttle. Only takes a hour to repair and retime. I think of it as a fuse or designed-in weak(safety) link.
Some OEM ignition systems only start on unestricted 12 volts and once started they switch to a power supply with a resister inline to limit the voltage. The switching on a Ford is done at the starter solenoid. As far as resisters I've seen balast resisters and 61 Ford and up to about 67 used a long length of wire folded back and forth in the wiring harness to create the needed resistance.
Did you watch the Rolex 24 hours at Daytona last weekend? Several of the Pontiac powered prototypes were having problems keeping the coil packs cool and functioning.