Questionok, i tried it... plenty of spark. what would my next step be?
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The text above is a follow-up to ...
-----Question-----
hi. i just bought a 78 triumph with only 40000 original miles. i was driving it about 2 straight hours on the highway when i noticed all of my power was dying. i think that the alternator must be dead. anyway, i drove it until it quit on me. it start to buck and stutter until finally she quit all together. i figured a new battery would get her 15 more miles... so i put a brand new fully charged battery in and she started right up. sounded good and all seemed well for about 5 miles when she started to buck and stutter and quit. this time the battery had plenty of power. i tried to restart and she turns very easily with no strange noise or anything but does not catch. where should i start looking for the problem from here?
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Tom,
What's possible is that by running the battery down you killed the Lucas electronic ignition.
A simple test is to pull the lead from the center of the distributor cap and set it so that it's approx 1/4 inch from grounded metal (firewall, engine block) that you can watch as you crank the engine. If there's no spark, it's likely the electronic module.
Cheers,
Jim
AnswerThe basic equation for a running engine is that you need:
1)Fuel
2)Fire (spark)
3)Timing
You've verified the spark. A quick test to see if it's a fuel delivery problem is to get a can of starting ether. Squirt some ether into the air cleaner housing. If the engine coughs/sputters then you know you're not getting fuel to the carb... or the fuel isn't getting from the carb to the engine.
If it isn't fuel then it's possible the timing is off, or the distributor rotor, cap, or plug wires might not be making proper contact(s).
Cheers,
Jim
