Thread: Kind of a Drag

Tweet

Yes it is directly connected to the battery with the positive fused. But my connections are usually connected with a butt plug or wire nuts. The box has a red LED which flashes. I may run the car and see if it skips a beat.

Originally Posted by Good Wrench

Basically the distributor just distributes. The spark chores are done by the ignition box although I guess I need to check ground on that. It's attached to a plastic inner fender well.

Run the box's ground to the battery as well.

Why a clean power source is so important with electronics.
Noise! Like the noise on your radio when it's not tuned on a station, noise in a power source and means frequencies are present. Frequencies are A/C (alternating) signals and they ride on top of D/C currents (basic analog amplification principles). Unfortunately these signals cause all kinds of communication problems with digital microprocessors (and yes most electronic ignitions have microprocessors). These signals or gremlins (as some call them) can confuse the processor into altering the spark out put, fuel ratios (fuel injected) and many other things.

So where do all of these unwanted frequencies come from? Anything connected to the electric supply source, the further away your connections get from the main source the more chance their signals will get into other equipment and these signals can loop through other equipment becoming stronger on the way

How do we prevent gremlins, we can't, at least not completely, however we can minimize them. The most inexpensive way in a D/C circuit is to pull power and ground directly from the main source (battery). We can can also add filters (capacitors) across the power and ground to strap noise (defeat the unwanted frequencies to ground), this is what radio noise suppression is and what you use on your big power amps to boost bass (a subject for another day).

BUT, no amount of filters will make up for bad power sourcing completely. Start out right and it will end right

Sorry for the book....

Originally Posted by Good Wrench

Yes it is directly connected to the battery with the positive fused. But my connections are usually connected with a butt plug or wire nuts. The box has a red LED which flashes. I may run the car and see if it skips a beat.

Butt splices are OK, I usually solder and crimp them. Wire nuts are not the best around vibrations. Flashing LED is just an indicator.

Yes, the box is directly wired to the battery but it doesn't mean the connections are still good.

The first thing I looked at turned out to be bad was the ground from the ignition box so I bulletproofed that. So far no pops out the exhaust BUT! I have not taken the dreaded TRIP!

Head on out I35 Good Wrench. Pretty sure that any demons haunting the Gardner area are fully engaged at the local pumpkin patches for Halloween.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

Thanks for all the help. Every time I hit a gremlin somebody here knows what it is! I feel kind of dumb tearing practically the whole engine up over 4 months and it turns out to be a lousy ground. I'm going to hide in a corner now.

Knowing MY luck they'll see that red monstrosity and converge on it like flies on spit. Then it'll turn on me like the cars in Maximum Overdrive!

We all need help now and again, electrical can be some of the hardest to diagnose!

That stupid ghost problem is back. It acts just like if you had a cracked cap. Kicks through the intake and exhaust under load. I just repaced the cap and rotor a week ago. When I did that the problem went away. Then it came back. Doing the same accursed trip. Latest things I did was shim up the distributor end play. Unhooked the vaccum advance and checked the ground wires. Without a load the engine runs fine but driving t acts up like a &^%^&%!!. I'm about ready to park it with the pink slip on the front seat. Please! I'm tearing my hair out. What's wrong with that 5^^^&$$%^%&(*engine?

You had a bad ground connection to your ignition box, did you check all the other connections to the box?

Please PM me with the location when you park the car (sorry I couldn't help it) I still would not rule out a lean condition on this, maybe not a ignition, I am no expert in this part of diagnosing without hearing type of thing but a pop under load can happen with a lean condition (especiallly when all the igniotion is not in question) could be a vacuum leak or even a to lean a carb, when it starts acting up choke it if its a manuel choke and if it clears up look for why its leaning out. Sure won't cost or take much to rule it out.

What brand of cap and rotor did you use? You want a cap and rotor with the highest dielectric strength that you can find. If they are genuine MSD you should be able to cross that off the list.

Might be a different gremlin, same symptom.

I'll expect the dizzy cap was the culprit last time, and vacuum leak this time.