It's the POINTS, you idiot!

Posted by Bob on November 13, 2006 at 07:47:27 from (69.178.229.154):

I posted this a couple of days ago, over on the "N" Board, so the ones of you who "cross over", have seen it, pardon me for repeating myself!

I reply to quite a few posts on here (for better or worse) from folks having trouble with breaker points.
I am about "out of practice" with them, though, 'cause most of my big farmer customers have all diesel trucks and machinery, and I am down to an 8N, and two old trucks having breaker points. I haven't had point trouble with the 8N for maybe 10 years, and the trucks rarely give any trouble.

I heat my shop with coal. I off-load about 13 tons at a time from a neighbor's BIG triple-axle truck to 2 small trucks I then use to fill the stoker's coal bin as necessary, over the winter.

This past Thursday afternoon, I was in a hurry to fill the coal bin before the early fall darkness set in, and needed to start the old 1953 GMC with a 270CID six-cylinder engine, as well as the 1957 Chevy truck with a 327 that was parked in front of it.

I knew both trucks were low on gas a month ago, when I moved them, so I put a jug of gas in each.

The Chevy fired off without much cranking. (It was around 30 degrees here.)

The GMC wouldn't start, and the battery quickly began to run down. I connected up a charger, and plugged in the block heater.

I came back an hour later, and figured it would fire right off. NO LUCK.

I have been expecting the old fuel pump to fail any time, and figured that was what had happened. I removed the air cleaner, squirted a shot of gasoline down the carburetor, and put the air cleaner back on in case of "backfire", and tried it again. Not even a pop!

Corroded points was my second guess, but not easy to confirm there was no spark, as the 1953 truck has the foot pedal operated starter, next to the gas pedal.

You can't operate the starter, even standing up, and hanging out the door, and see the spark tester at the same time.

I finally got about upside down next to the engine, and manual operated the starter pedal, from under the hood. Sure enough, no spark.

I shut off the switch, removed the distributor cap, and moved the moveable point up and down a little, with my finger, feeling the points scaping each other, which will often clean them up enough so they'll make spark.

Still no luck.

So I went back to the shop, and got the paper cardstock I have often posted about on here, polished up the points with them closed, then cranked the engine over 'til they were open, and finished the job with a spray of electrical contact cleaner.

I gave it a couple of minutes to dry, then put the rotor and cap back on, and again tried to start it.

The 'ol '53 fired off like a NEW truck!

Sometimes, it DOES pay to follow your own advice, and check for spark when something won't start!

Replies:

• Re: It's the POINTS, you idiot! Janicholson 10:19:17 11/13/06 (0)
• Re: It's the POINTS, you idiot! kfox 08:47:42 11/13/06 (0)

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