4 replies to this topic

[miniman86]

Model: hornet
Year: 69
Description of problem (please be as in depth as possible):
to cut a long story short, i managed to short out the coil and burnt out the dizzy, to the extent i'm pretty sure i will be needing a new 1. all the wiring loom etc looks to be fine though, is there any way of me checking the coil aswell??


Any non-standard parts that might be involved with the problem?

[Big_Adam]

Wait ... what?

Also, its 1 wire from dizzy to coil. Can't you just add a new one?

[dklawson]

A 1969 would still have points and I don't see how you could "burn out" a distributor to the point that the whole distributor needs replacing.

Exactly what did you do and what makes you say you burned out the distributor?

[miniman86]

lots of smoke from the inside of the dizzy, and when i went to take the burnt out points out of the dizzy the inside of it was very brittle, the stud that the points mount onto came off etc.

Alex

[dklawson]

lots of smoke from the inside of the dizzy, and when i went to take the burnt out points out of the dizzy the inside of it was very brittle, the stud that the points mount onto came off etc.

Alex

Smoke would have to be from the points wire and ground wire burning. Those are easily replaced.

The rest of the inside of the dizzy is (for the most part) metal. Perhaps you meant the dizzy cap and rotor were brittle. Obviously they are also easily replaced.

The stud for the points coming off is perhaps the most significant problem. Depending on the extent of the damage, you may be able to disassemble the dizzy, remove the breaker plate, and peen the stem of the pin so it is secured again in the breaker plate. While the dizzy is apart, thoroughly clean the bob weights under the breaker plate. Make sure they are able to move freely and lubricate the pivot points for the weights. There is a screw below the rotor (sometimes covered with a felt disk). Remove the felt disk and the screws. This will allows you to lift the 4-lobe cam. Make sure that the dizzy cam is free to move both vertically and angularly (by twisting it). If it is not free to move, remove the cam, clean the shaft and inside of the cam. Place the cam back on a LUBRICATED shaft in the dizzy and replace the screw and felt disk. Place a couple of drops of oil on the felt disk.

The worst scenario I can imagine is that you somehow connected full 12V directly to the points connection on the coil. If the points in the dizzy were closed, this would give a direct path to earth for all the current that can pass through the little white/black points wire. I assume therefore that it burned up like the components inside the dizzy. Be sure to replace it as well. I doubt any of your wiring errors would translate to damage to the coil. The coil is a big wad of wire. Regardless of whether it is a ballast or standard type coil, it is designed to carry several Amps and it is quite acceptable to connect it between 12V and earth. Although, a ballast coil normally has an additional resistor in series with its wiring.... Still, it is unlikely that any wiring mistake you made damaged the coil.