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Engine starts but will not run

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Old Dec 25th, 2011, 12:18   #21
woolfie1948
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From the the previous two responses it appears my choice is to replace the coil for a non ballast one, and I assume find a tidy way to join the wires that went into the old resistor to the ones that come out, or to find a replacement resistor.
At the moment I have not decided, maybe I should conduct an online poll!
There appear to be lots of 1.5 ohm ones on sale (MG, Triumph etc) but no 0.9 ohm ones - anyone know what would happen if I used one of these as it would be very simple, cheap, and tidy to?
Just out of interest does anyone know what goes wrong with these things as I have taken it out and it appears to look like the electric fires that were about when I was a child -a coil of wire in a ceramic holder. Mine has a break in the ceramic that I can glue back together but the wire is not broken. I may try to just clean up the terminals to see if has another 40 years life in it!
Thanks to all contributors again as it is a relief now to have these options to play with rather than pondering over why its not working.
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Old Dec 25th, 2011, 22:09   #22
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It's just a resistor. They develop poor electric connections and stop working. Your mode of failure is slightly unusual. Often they'll work fine when cold, but cause cutting out when the car gets hot. Let it cool a bit and it'll work fine again.

All it's doing is dropping the voltage at the coil when the car is running to 8 volts or so. When the car is starting the coil gets a full 12 volts and delivers a bigger spark. It'll work at 12 volts, but it'll get hot when run full time like that. Any old ballast resistor will do the job. But I reckon a new 12 volt coil is a more elegant solution.
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Old Dec 26th, 2011, 12:53   #23
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I woke up in the middle of the night and remembered that I had fitted a new 12v non ballast coil to another similar age car a couple of years ago, as the one on it looked like it could have been the original, and the old one should of course be in the box marked 'may come in useful one day', and this morning it was!
On went the very antique looking very black bosch item and deep joy and to my shock and amazement the wire that used to go to the ballast resistor is long enough to plug straight on to the coil. I contained my excitment long enough to tape the redundant wires safely out of the way and there you are, an engine that ran long enough for me to get my timing light out and set the ignition. I hope to be able to get a test drive later.
Even more joy when I noticed that the tray I now keep underneath did not have any ATF in it. I had previousely put about half a litre in and the level cold looks to be ok but I will keep a close eye on it and fingers crossed it will still drive ok.
I'm tempted to say that after a bit of a struggle the god of volvo is happy and things are looking up, but that would be tempting fate so I won't.
I think that when the holiday is over one of my first investments should be another new coil.
A happy new year to all.
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Old Dec 26th, 2011, 14:40   #24
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Good result but I still strongly recommend that you bite the bullet and fit a new high performence coil.
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Old Dec 26th, 2011, 15:38   #25
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Quick update
Just been on 12 mile round trip to local classic car meet without problem.
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Old Mar 27th, 2012, 23:16   #26
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The new non ballast type coil solved the problem of engine not running and in fact it seemed to be going rather well other than the dreaded pinking.
The changes made to the curve by H+H (who said they could not find any faults when on their test rig) did little for the pinking so have been running at 6 btdc instead of the book 10 btdc to reduce it as much as possible.
Before I sent my dizzy to H+H I did buy a used one on ebay that never arrived having got lost in the post, however, talking to the seller a couple of weeks ago about another purchase he said it had just made it back to him, so I bought it again.
It arrived last week and so I cleaned and oiled it before putting on a condensor and new points and fitting it to the car.
As with the original one I set dwell as the book, but tried the timing 10 btdc as the book.
What I cannot now understand is driving it this afternoon although it felt a bit down on power and tickover a bit more lumpy, it did not pink at all!
I am thinking of trying a bit more advance or tweeking the carbs to improve the performance but I think stopping dreaded pink must be a major step towards my target of getting it running spot on.
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Old Mar 28th, 2012, 10:22   #27
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If you can afford it get a "123" dizy. I did and the engine never misses a beat and no sign of pinking. The curve can be set for different engines and comes set for yours. Do get a "high perfofmance" coil. You won't regret either.
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Old Mar 28th, 2012, 11:09   #28
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Thanks George. High perf. coil fitted (as you advised) when I ditched the ballast resistor. The 123 is though a big investment.
Dare I say it, I have thought about trying Accuspark! They are local and I have discussed it with them.
I feel sure though there is more improvement yet to be had with a bit more experimenting with timing etc. as small changes seem to make a difference.
For example when I first set the points in the 'new' dizzy I thought I had them spot on and the engine started the absolute instant I turned the key but the dwell meter showed the gap was too wide and when I corrected it, it started ok but not instantly. Maybe I should have tried driving with the wide setting?
A mechanic I have known for more years than I care to remember always says the book settings are only a starting point.
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Old Mar 28th, 2012, 14:12   #29
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The dwell angle is the starting point. Get that right as per book and then timing. make sure that your HT cables are in good nick, perhaps replace old ones. Just as an experiment you could use "super" 98? gas and see if that makes any difference. Make sure that there are absolutly no air leaks in carbs/manifold
Check this thread
http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showth...=148766&page=2
Also your "new" dizi. is there any slop when they on the dogs engage?
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Old Mar 28th, 2012, 14:18   #30
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That's very weird and it makes me think of 2 things. Either H&H have not done it right (I doubt it). Or there's wear in that 2nd distibutor you've bought!

The first question I have is whether it pinks with the vac advance pipe attached

Momentarily, put your instruction book away!

Experiment setting the timing at 2,750rpm with vac pipes disconnected. At that speed, the mech advance should be at its max. Try setting it at 32 degrees at anything over 2,750rpm. If you don't have a rev counter, just do it with the engine running fast. Now reconnect the pipes and drive it. If it doesn't pink, nudge it round till it just pinks, then back it off a bit

The most efficient burn of mixture is just before pre-ignition (pinking). Once pinking, efficiency drastically decreases

An accuspark is going to make NO difference, providing you have set the points up properly. Impossible. Great - you say you have a dwell angle meter! Here, you do need to refer to the book. There's a "from - to" range given in the data. You should try to set it at the wide end. This is because after a few miles have been covered, you connect up your meter and read that it's dropped back to the minimum reading, then you know you've got to widen the gap again!

You mention the difference between performance and relate that to slightly lumpy idle. Could you elaborate on that please? Is this right through the rev range, or just low down, but it's okay above about 2,500?

My thoughts are this - you've set that 2nd distributor at 10 degs, but throughout the rev range and at at max advance there may be a tiny bit of wear resulting in you not getting enough advnce up high resulting in slightlty sluggish performace

Secondly, just set that newly reconditioned unit as above, at full advance and keep nudging it back untill pinking has been eliminated. The most important thing is to get the max advance right, not the amount of advance at idle - in fact 6 degs at idle should be quite nice. I wouldn't go any more than 34 degs full advance. 23 degs should beabout right, but if you're having to go below 30 degs or so, there's something wrong with the distrbutor and you're not going to enjoy the best performance once at normal cruising speeds

A note and something to consider. B20A's (generally) pink unless they're nudged back from the settings given in the book. I think a B30A has a similar cam profile. When new, they were supposed to run on high octane fuel....
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Last edited by swedishandgerman; Mar 28th, 2012 at 14:25.
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