![\"\"](\"http:\/\/giuliettas.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/04\/sprint-on-track.jpg\" "\\"sprint")
<\/a>Starting at the happy ending… Me and the Mrs. in our Sprint on the track at Sears Point.\u00a0 Thanks for the picture Greg!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n The Sprint had been hard starting for a while -usually catching after<\/em> the key had left the start position, and frequently wetting the plugs.\u00a0 My first thoughts were that it was carb related because the Weber DCD I had been using lacked a functioning cold start device, but even warm it was a gamble parking because it frequently wouldn’t start and required bumping.\u00a0 I borrowed a Solex from Laurence (thanks again Laurence) that was a known good, in adjustment, fully functioning carb pulled from a good running car when a pair of DCOE’s replaced it a few years back.\u00a0 The addition of this carb seemed to improve things, but not as transformationally as I hoped.\u00a0 Cold starts still required bumping and warm starts seemed to require luck.<\/p>\n My attention next turned to the coil.\u00a0 When I rebuilt the engine I installed the original Lucas coil that came with the car.\u00a0 I swapped it for a new generic ‘Made in China’ coil I had laying around and it seemed to help.\u00a0 I say seemed, because it started right up when usually it would balk.\u00a0 I drove the car home and then went to drive the car\u00a0to my neighborhood grocery and I got about 100 meters from my driveway when the car quit.\u00a0 Mike offered to lend me a spare coil he had for his SS (thanks again Mike) and once I installed this the car started right up.\u00a0 I continued my trip to the grocery store.<\/p>\n When I left the grocery store the car started right up but as I pulled out of the parking lot it started running rough.\u00a0 I barely made it home.\u00a0 Some head scratching and careful observation revealed oil on the points of the Marelli Veloce distributor.\u00a0 A quick cleaning improved things.\u00a0 After this I decided to heed Duff’s advise (thanks again Duff) and checked the voltage at the coil.\u00a0 Okay, finally some pictures!<\/p>\n So with the ignition on, but not cranking, I had just over 11 volts at the coil.\u00a0 It must have been sparking with this or it wouldn’t have bump started or occasionally caught when the ignition left the start position.\u00a0 Next I put the car in neutral and cranked it over.<\/p>\n Aha, low voltage at the coil when cranking.\u00a0 I drove home, put the car on a charger overnight and when I returned from work the next day I tried to start it -no start.\u00a0 I decided to check the tightness of the battery leads and when I pulled on the negative lead it simply fell apart in my hand!<\/p>\n I went to Kragen and for $6.99 was able to buy a new negative lead in the right length.\u00a0 Leaving the store I found $5 in the parking lot -sweet.\u00a0 I installed the lead and vroom, it started right up.\u00a0 I switched it off and then vroom, it started right up again.\u00a0 I felt\u00a0dumb that I hadn’t thought to check such a simple, easy to check thing as the battery leads, but glad none the less that my woes seemed to be over.\u00a0 When the Mrs. got\u00a0home I decided to take her for a triumphant drive in the Sprint.\u00a0 The points oiled up again 100 meters from the house.\u00a0 D’oh!\u00a0 This was the evening of April 5th.\u00a0 The next morning I made a decision after reading some testimonials -I bought an electronic ignition\u00a0distributor and Bosch blue coil from Centerline<\/a>.\u00a0 They arrived Friday night (the day before the picture on the track above was taken).\u00a0<\/p>\n It took me about 45 minutes to swap them.\u00a0 This is actually a long time to do this job.\u00a0 I couldn’t get the distributor shaft seal into the front cover and ended up removing it and using the old hard o-ring from the Marelli unit.\u00a0 Needless to say the car simply leapt to running life when\u00a0the ignition switch hit the start position.\u00a0 I adjusted the timing based\u00a0on running sound and did some hot laps around my neighborhood.\u00a0\u00a0I was so\u00a0enthused by how good the Sprint was running I even drove us that night in the\u00a0Sprint out to eat at\u00a0Sidebar -a little restaurant\u00a0on Grand across from Lake Merritt.\u00a0 The next morning I set the timing with a light -it was 10 degrees too advanced – and headed up to the track.\u00a0 Case closed?\u00a0 The Snowball rally is less than 2 weeks away so I plan on driving the Sprint a lot before then, but so far so good!<\/p>\n<\/strong><\/a>Here is the coil voltage, no cranking.\u00a0 Not too good, but\u00a0capable of producing a weak spark.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0Cranking voltage at the coil of 7.38 volts will not result in a spark!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>The low coil terminal voltage culprit.\u00a0 The captive fastener heads had simply worked their way out of the lead.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n