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First trip of the new season and my 1966 A4 is having sudden shutdowns after warming up anywhere from 7 to 60 minutes before failure.
A little background: I just bought this boat Oct '06 and motored most of the 30 miles from her summer slip to winter jackstands so I only had her out once last year before being professionally winterized. Engine never missed a beat on the way there last fall, just as the previous owner, (one of the more honest men I've ever met), told me she would.
However, this year on the trip back to the slip, she lasted about 45 mins, then died. I can restart it, but it will die again and the less time I let her cool down, usually means less time she stays running & vice versa. As it is the sudden shutdown variety, I've been looking at the primary ignition wiring.
Immediately after the shutdown, I still find 12VDC at the + coil terminal, however, there were two times, I had 12VDC there w/o the key in the ignition, so I think the switch might be suspect as well. Condensor is shiny, so I assume it's recent, but I did not replace it.
List of things I've done with no change to the failures:
New Coil, New coil-to-dist cap wire, "hot wired" pos coil terminal to starting battery, new wire from condensor/distributor post to neg coil terminal, checked contact from condensor to dist housing is solid, Dist Cap is still shiny inside, so I figure it was put in last year, checked the rotor and it looked fairly new too. I think that's it.
Engine starts and runs perfectly until it stops. No warning, no coughing, etc. Next thing I try will be a dedicated ground, from the battery to neg coil terminal. I suppose the new coil could be bad out of the box? I have a copy of your nicely written A4 manual and will be working on her come Memorial Day weekend again. Any help you may have would be appreciated.
Tim Walior
s/v Maggie Anna
A little background: I just bought this boat Oct '06 and motored most of the 30 miles from her summer slip to winter jackstands so I only had her out once last year before being professionally winterized. Engine never missed a beat on the way there last fall, just as the previous owner, (one of the more honest men I've ever met), told me she would.
However, this year on the trip back to the slip, she lasted about 45 mins, then died. I can restart it, but it will die again and the less time I let her cool down, usually means less time she stays running & vice versa. As it is the sudden shutdown variety, I've been looking at the primary ignition wiring.
Immediately after the shutdown, I still find 12VDC at the + coil terminal, however, there were two times, I had 12VDC there w/o the key in the ignition, so I think the switch might be suspect as well. Condensor is shiny, so I assume it's recent, but I did not replace it.
List of things I've done with no change to the failures:
New Coil, New coil-to-dist cap wire, "hot wired" pos coil terminal to starting battery, new wire from condensor/distributor post to neg coil terminal, checked contact from condensor to dist housing is solid, Dist Cap is still shiny inside, so I figure it was put in last year, checked the rotor and it looked fairly new too. I think that's it.
Engine starts and runs perfectly until it stops. No warning, no coughing, etc. Next thing I try will be a dedicated ground, from the battery to neg coil terminal. I suppose the new coil could be bad out of the box? I have a copy of your nicely written A4 manual and will be working on her come Memorial Day weekend again. Any help you may have would be appreciated.
Tim Walior
s/v Maggie Anna
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