Distributor Problem????

[kwhizz]

I think I found part or all of the problem........I took the Yellow car for a ride to Volo on Sunday to walk thru the Museum (indoor car lot).......I stopped for gas just after leaving Volo and when I went to start the car, it started Immediately but shut off as soon as the Key went from Start to On.....Tried and Tried but the same results....so I knew that there was no power to the distributor in the run position.........Anyhow, I drove the car home holding the key in between start on on....Tonight I checked everything out and found that the Battery Terminal on the Ignition Switch was melted on that terminal only.....it seems that the melted plastic became an insulator and contact was lost thru the battery wire.....it was a new Ignition Switch, and all new wires......Is it possible that by holding the key in that position for 45 minutes caused the melting and there is still a problem elsewhere or???????????
Had to order a new Switch (GM) this time......maybe the aftermarket switch was the problem.......Any ideas from you "Sparky" guy's

By the way Volo had 4 Yenko cars there....."Real" ...Of course..........LOL

Ken

[Belair62]

Ken..look at a wiring diagram...the ignition switch should give your point full voltage to start and then revert to your resistor wire to run ? Maybe that resistor went bad ? I may be all wet here..I'm thinking of my old beast with a ballast resistor on the firewall

[Belair62]

Ooops...just read entire thread...no points !!! still could be resistor wire though I think

[kwhizz]

I by passed the resistor wire, added a keyed (hot) wire off the fuse panel to the distributor.....Hummmmmmm!!! I need to do some more checking.....(lightbulb just lit)

Ken

[Thomas]

It may not be a distributor problem. I had to change to high torque mini starter on my L78 Camaro this summer because the headers and cowl induction air cleaner were overheating the solenoid. The mini starter did not have the 2 small lugs for the 2 wires that the original starter had. When I spoke to the perofrmance shop where I bought the starter, they suggested connecting both wires to the single lug on the starter. Remember we are not talking about the positive battery cable here. This didn't work. The car would start but as soon as I release the key, the engine would stop.
What I learned was that the one wire only provided full battery voltage to the coil to make sure it had enough power to fire the spark plugs on a cold engine. This wire is only hot in the Start postion. The other wire is hot in the run position. It could be that this wire is broken somewhere.
I'm not sure whether this will help, but you may want to look at that.

Thomas

[kwhizz]

Bingo..........Replaced the Battery Terminal Connector in the Ignition Switch Plug and replaced the Ignition switch itself (The spade end was loose on the switch which possibly could caused a resistance problem) and everything except the Tach is fine......I think the Tach has some seperate issues
But, these electrical things can make you crazy chasing them, there was probably nothing wrong with the distributor Module that was in the car, it was the terminal starting to fail.........But it's fixed and on to the next project...

Ken (I are now smarter than I was last week)

[kwhizz]

Another thing I noticed today while driving the car.....the voltmeter was in the 10 o'clock position.....never got above the 9 o'clock position since it was rewired last year, the Ignition switch was replaced at the same time.......this resistance/terminal problem was with me all the time, at the same time the car was rewired I also added Shiftworks/ SS gauges to the Instrument panel....all this time I thought it was odd that the voltmeter never went into the positive charge area and stayed mostly neutral but I thought that the gauge was out of calibration slightly.......If this ever happens again, I'll look a little deeper right away...
Just posting this info because it might help somebody else out in the future.....

Ken (Stick Boy)

[Xplantdad]

Good that you got it figured out 'Stick Boy'!

[kwhizz]

I R Smart...........ter........Now!!!

Ken (what's this other pedal for??)

[Xplantdad]

Hmmm...what IS that other pedal for???