Over the past 6 weeks my car has died and had to be towed home twice.

First time- died while cruising down the street, restarted, stumbled and quit for good,.cranked just fine but would not start. got it home and dug in to find that my 9 year old battery- about the only thing not replaced during my rebuild- was shot, replaced it, car started right up but ran a bit rough,looked at dwell to see it would vary a bit between readings so swapped the points out, Dwell readings steady at 30. Ran stronger than ever for weeks.

Second time-died while cruising city streets again. Sputtered out, notice temp gauge was up to 225 - usually runs at 190*, started it enough to get around the corner and into a parking spot. figured it overheated ( had stop leak in it for thermo housing leak, too much? and was a bit low on water) so sat and watched and waited as the temp gauge slowly went down. tried starting it a couple times but again spun over freely but no start. get brought home on a flat bed and try it, strong crank no start so just parked it. a few days later i get my gauges ( tach dwell etc) hooked up ready to dive in again. have wife crank it with no gas given so i can watch the gauge and it pops right off and runs, albeit rough again. Spend time checking for possible mis fire sources etc, again dwell would vary a bit between readings so replaced points again, Dwell reading again became steady, pops right off, and again runs as strong as ever.
This is my 350 stroker build . Just, obviously , now hesitant to trust the car, and wondering if anyone might have some thoughts or things to check to insure a bit more reliability. Would a dead / dying battery fry or affect the points ( neither set I removed looked burnt or worn) could overheating cause the points to have a problem? I have had the car running for about a year and a half with zero issues up until these incidents.. Anyway, thanks for reading.

 

My first thought is to check the distributor for a worn bushing. That could explain the points dwell varying.

 

Not in my experience.More likely that would affect the coil.

Back in the 80s I had an issue on my 70 Supreme with intermittent rough running/dying that I traced to the resistor wire feeding the points. Make sure that wire has a good solid connection from the firewall junction block to the coil. Check all of the coil and distributor wires while you're at it.

 

Good thoughts, everything is new and runs superb,with no dwell variation save these 2 times, already checked or replaced the wires and ballast etc.....just drove it again for an hour, no issues at all, spot on throughout rpm's

 

I always use Accel points and condenser kit, a little pricey but peace of mind. Their caps and rotors are also very good quality. The kit p/n: 8104ACC, for points only p/n: 8110128 . There is also 2 different voltages to the points one for starting the other for after start-up. 12 volts steady will wear points quickly. Good luck
https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hc...e/3742541.html
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/acc-8104acc
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/acc-110128/overview/

 

3 times a charm??? Car died again as before. Changing points out the first 2 times seemed to cure, temporarily it seems, so, possibly a mistake but instead of changing the points out again I installed a Pertronix 1181 LS ( lobe sensing) points elimination kit hoping the car would fire right off. Nope. Tested the coil and both the primary and secondary resistance readings are close to the advertised specs for my MSD Blaster 2 coil. reinstalled the coil, double checked my wiring and connections, but no spark from the coil wire to ground. When I hook the test light up to the Postive side of the coil and turn the key it lights and stays lit, should it not flash? In any event, if someone could direct me to a step by step "no spark" trouble shooting post I would be grateful, pretty sure I saw on here before but did not find it by searching. When I installed the coil at rebuild time long ago, following the MSD instructions, installed the ballast resistor provided on the firewall ( please keep in mind the car ran perfect for a year and half until these issues), whilst digging into the various wires etc I see my old resistor wire ( shiny sliver tough one to coil) is still in place and use, is it possible that could be affecting anything?
Appreciate any input and help!
Thanks!

 

Are you changing the condenser when you replace the points. Too much voltage in the condenser can cause it to overheat and break down. After all it is just a capacitor and can go bad. Might just be a coincidence that changing the points repairs the problem when the problem might be a bad condenser.

 

The positive side of the coil does not blink, the negative side is the trigger. You can't use both a ballast resistor and resistance wire. One or the other goes to coil+, the red wire from the pertronix needs full battery voltage and the black connects to coil-.

Trouble shooting:
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-ignition.html

 

 

 

 

I would consider yourself lucky, read the pertronix instructions about the resistance wire and trouble shooting. Both points and pertronix are pretty easy. In addition you need to remove the capacitor on the coil if you still have one, its not needed with an electronic ignition.