rlang

Final steps of complete restoration of 68 442. New dash harness, console harness, refurbished engine, front, and rear harnesses (all connections cleaned with ohm tests for wire breaks). Engine fires on initial start then falls flat...just cranks like no gas or spark. Wired around engine harness with a generic ignition switch (just connections to battery, coil + elect. fuel pump, and purple starter solenoid wire)...fired and kept on going....that left out the fuel issue.

My horse sense tells me I must not be getting any juice to keep going after the initial coil hit from the "R" terminal on the starter solenoid but then I don't know that much about the finer points of electrical systems or how to check the right things out to determine cause and effect.

Any help really appeciated....this car needs to be on the road before summer is out....it's been 6 years.

Thanks
Russ

brddg

Is this a totally stock restoration? My first guess would be that the resistor wire is not conducting anything. Does it have points or an electronic conversion?

oldcutlass

Your horse sense and brddg is correct your missing your run circuit to the coil.

Sampson

This is a phenomenom that I used to notice when i was working on these cars for a living and they were our daily drivers. Like problems would come in groups. One week would be starter week, the next water pump week and so on. Same thing seems to still be happening. 3rd thread this week on no fire to the run side. I hope you can get this tracked down quickly and take that baby out for a ride. 6 years is a Long time

rlang

Totally stock restoration except that a Pertronix system was used instead of points. This baby was all in pieces when I got it and did not have a resistor block....doesn't mean it didn't have one or need one for that matter. I'm wondering if it might be worthwhile to just rob the piggy bank and get a replacement engine harness....40+ years on engine wiring might be a culprit??

Anyway, I did wire around everything and use a generic ignition switch to at least get the rascal down to the local muffler shop......technically it's now on the road even though only 1/2 mile!

oldcutlass

The Pertronix requires a full battery voltage so therefore does not run off the original resistor wire. All you need is a keyed source with a 14-12 gauge wire and your good. There is no need to replace the whole harness to correct this.

rlang

Thanks oldcutlass....

brddg

What I have done on cars I want to keep the stock apperance on is to remove the resistor wire from the bulkhead connector and replace it with a regular white wire (you can buy new ones if you can find a shop that does this regularly).