While motoring between ports today, the engine was running fine, for about two hours, then stopped suddenly - no coughs, etc. just like someone hit the ignition switch.
There was no wind and the lee shore is not friendly so I was in a bit of a panic. I quickly found (by removing a plug wire and holding near a head bolt) that there was no spark. I then checked at the coil output (the same way) - and still no spark. I verified that the points were working (by watching the coil pin with a voltmeter). I wiggled the seemingly tight connections, re-plugged the coil to distributor wire - still no spark. I've only had the boat for a year, and a coil wasn't in my spares.
So we tried sailing for 30 minutes or so, then I re-checked everything - still nothing. I then made sure the points were open, then using a short piece of wire, tried grounding the points connection to the coil. After a few tries, I finally saw a little spark on my jumper wire (makes the capacitor look good), and the coil was now sparking to ground. I replaced the coil secondary, and it started right up and ran another three hours to my new berth.
Any ideas what this was? Anyone ever experience a coil that was temperature sensitive? I'm unable to examine my points since the distributor cap is held on with a totally corroded screw which I'll have to drill out or something.
I'm obviously going to expand my spares supply to include a coil and points, but I'd sure like to know what actually happened!
There was no wind and the lee shore is not friendly so I was in a bit of a panic. I quickly found (by removing a plug wire and holding near a head bolt) that there was no spark. I then checked at the coil output (the same way) - and still no spark. I verified that the points were working (by watching the coil pin with a voltmeter). I wiggled the seemingly tight connections, re-plugged the coil to distributor wire - still no spark. I've only had the boat for a year, and a coil wasn't in my spares.
So we tried sailing for 30 minutes or so, then I re-checked everything - still nothing. I then made sure the points were open, then using a short piece of wire, tried grounding the points connection to the coil. After a few tries, I finally saw a little spark on my jumper wire (makes the capacitor look good), and the coil was now sparking to ground. I replaced the coil secondary, and it started right up and ran another three hours to my new berth.
Any ideas what this was? Anyone ever experience a coil that was temperature sensitive? I'm unable to examine my points since the distributor cap is held on with a totally corroded screw which I'll have to drill out or something.
I'm obviously going to expand my spares supply to include a coil and points, but I'd sure like to know what actually happened!
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