Posted by Steve Kanavas on December 27, 1999 at 13:38:21:
In Reply to: Troubleshooting 230, help! posted by KBishop on December 27, 1999 at 13:04:18:
Whatcha got is basically weak spark! By lifting the wire away from the plug, you are creating a larger gap. This permits a voltage rise in the coil, elevating the firing voltage by 2-3000 volts. To correct this situation, try these fixes.
Run a wire directly from the battery to the coil hot side. Does this circumvent the problems? If so, check the primary wiring and connections.
Wiring to the points, condenser, coil and the ignition switch are all in the circuit. These should be free of 50 years of crud and corrosion. Also corroded solder joints on the terminal ends of these wires are sometimes suspect.
Reduce the point gap. This will allow more time for the coil to "saturate" while the points are closed.
Finally, you may just have crudded up the spark plugs from a rich condition as the carb seems off tune. I had to set my float level on my '48 way lower than the manual says to get it to not flood.
Fouled plugs will sometimes fire with increased voltage. (hence the better running with the wire arcing to the plug) Feed it another set of plugs.
steve