[fishybusiness]

i turned the key for the first time yesterday, and ....don't seem to have ignition. the car is a 1961 giulietta sprint with a 1750. the car is still positive ground, and has lucas rotating electrics. the distributor is marelli, and the coil is a bosch blue.

i ohmed the coil yesterday; it's good. when i take the coil to distributor wire off at the distributor and place it near ground and crank the engine, there's no arc. when i remove a plug, reconnect it to it's wire, and crank the engine, there's no visible spark.

when i check voltage at the coil across the small terminals, i get a negative -12.4v reading. any significance? the - terminal of coil goes to the distributor, the + comes from the instuments [i think ] and goes on to the fuel pump, which works fine.

i'm considering reversing the + and the - at the coil, but of course am also fond of keeping the smoke inside the wires any thoughts?

i was told by the po the car hadn't been started for around 10 years. it's got a new battery, ignition wires [green] and fresh plugs.

 

[concept 101]

Assuming you have checked the break points for correct gap and condition (and condensor), check again and make sure there´s no fat/dirt on the points (clean with spirits), experienced a story like yours 4 years ago when I had everything apart and finally and almost by coincidence found this culprit.

Dennis

 

[fishybusiness]

thanks for the suggestion. i hadn't removed the distributor. i have cap, rotor, condensor, and points coming. perhaps the condenser is dead? the wear items;cap,rotor,and points look ok. thanks again.

 

[concept 101]

If the points look ok, meaning not badly damaged/burned, you don´t need to worry about the condenser....

Dennis

 

[alfazagato]

First thing, with the ignition on, is to flick the points apart to see if there is a spark. If not it could be the condenser.

 

[fishybusiness]

i now have spark! i'm thinking it was the condenser. but i shotgunned it; cap,rotor,points,and condenser. the points, cap, and rotor looked fine. i called jon norman at alfa parts at 4:30pm yesterday, had my ignition parts before noon. that's what i call overnight!!

unfortuneately, it's still not running. a couple of large backfires through the old solex. now i'm thinking new weber dgv downdraft. and triple checking my timing.

 

[papajam]

Check firing order, dwell and timing.

 

[101 Alfa Mike]

Large backfires -- When you check the timing make sure it isn't 180 degrees out.

 

[fishybusiness]

it was. i've got the 1300 bell housing and flywheel, and the timing marks are on the flywheel. i saw some yellow paint marks through the window, and ASSUMED they were the timing marks.turns out they indicate 180 out. took the cover off the bottom of the bell housing for a better look, and it all became clear.....

 

[101 Alfa Mike]

So, did it start up and run without backfiring?

Expect your Solex is flooding/leaking because the needle valve is stuck in the open position. Pull the top off the carb and free it up. That should improve things to where you can try starting it up.

 

[fishybusiness]

i've got the carb off, it's at a local repair shop waiting for a rebuild. my guy tells me he'll have a kit mon or tue. i saw a little puff of atomized fuel come from the rear of the carb when it was backfiring. scary. i have no idea if it's ever been apart, and i should have just bitten the bullet when i started work on this project, but i thought i'd just see how lucky i was.....do backfires through the carb tend to pop the needle valve up?

 

[101 Alfa Mike]

Old gas forms gums which tend to muck up the works of any carb.

 

[GTD]

fishy
By your description, that backfire and gas is leaking from the starting enrichment circuit (choke to those in the USA) - time or the backfire - caused failure of the gasket there. Good luck with that local shop rebuild ... throwing a kit into a 50 year old SOLEX is like puttying up the sills on an ALFA with Bondo ... seldom satisfactory.

p.s. - Most kits sold today don't include a gasket for the starting enrichment circuit.

 

[fishybusiness]

it ran... for a bit. put a new dgv32/36 on it. i was playing with the timing and the idle screw when it died.about 3 minutes run time. wouldn't crank. pulled the plugs and tried to turn it over, no joy. it had oil pressure, around 50 psi, but perhaps a bit of crud obstructed one of the passages in the bottom end. ah well, i guess it probably would of been leaking oil everywhere when it got up to temp. perhaps i should of put in a few quarts of atf for the start up, might of dissolved the crud. thanks again to all for their collective wisdom. i'll start the teardown in a month or so.