'80 Scout just won't start

T

TomJF

New member
Have a 1980 Scout, 345, tg, prestolite w/o points. I hadn't driven it in 2 months, moved it 50 feet, then 2 days later it failed to start. After checking the obvious things, I realized there was intermittent voltage to the coil. After connecting 12volts direct to coil, still failed to start. Went ahead and replaced plugs, coil, cap, wires and rotor. No luck. Did all tests for operation of ignition, indicated trigger bad. Replaced trigger, same result. Took out distributor and had it checked at auto/electric shop, checked out fine, even with old trigger. Good gap on sensor. With a spark tester on the coil hi-tension lead and plug wires found out the wiring thru ignition switch would only create spark immediately after engaging starter and just at end of starter sequence (?) sparks fine with hot wire to coil. I have read all the ignition tech posts and can't find info that helps. Carb seems to be functioning, have checked tdc @ #8 cylinder, fiddled with timing, etc. Can anyone tell me what I'm missing!
 
only create spark immediately after engaging starter and just at end of starter sequence (?) sparks fine with hot wire to coil.
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I'll bet the ignition switch or the resistance wire has gone bad. I've had them do that with no warning; one day it's fine, next day it either didn't start or died on the way to work.

In your process of attempting to start, you May have flooded the engine, and now the plugs are damp with fuel.

Clean the plugs, and while they're out; crank the engine with a wide open throttle as sort of a "purge" cycle to vent excess fuel. After it's all together, try a normal start with your hot wire in place. If it goes fine, then it's the switch or wire. Don't run it too long on 12 volts hooked to a stock coil.
 
I think the suspicions regarding the iggy switch are well founded. The presto no-points gets full key-switched b+ with no need for resistor feed. As long as the engine is running, there won't be any damage to the coil from a direct battery jump. Leaving the jumper wire in place with the engine stopped wouldn't be wise.
 
Thanks for the replies. I will remove the plugs and blow everything out this evening after it cools down a bit.

One thing that I didn't mention is that it's a calif. Smog vehicle. I have a mitchels manual that shows nothing in its wiring diagram that indicates a direct b+ wouldn't work but I think there is more to the calif. Smogger. In the IH manual it's showing a vacuum switch on the cal. Model and maybe some other weird stuff (don't much care for their wiring diagrams). Is it possible that the extra smog garbage could be complicating things?
 
Got it started! I cleaned the plugs and blew out the cylinders as suggested but another thing May have done the trick. I noticed that the plug wires that I replaced had a very heavy boot on the spark plug and it appears that it wouldn't slide down far enough to make good contact. After trimming an 1/8" off the end, better contact was made. Either way it's running just like before.

Thanks for everyone's help.
 
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