[orangegtojudge]

I ran into this same issue before. I changed the plug wires, plugs, cap, rotor, points and cond., fuel pump, fuel filter, some other things. Car ran great and I thought I had the problem behind me. Took it out for a ride several weeks later and died on the side of the road in my neighborhood. It had fuel and spark. Had it trailered to a mechanic shop. They tinkered with it for a week and determined that the coil was bad. I had always thought they worked or didn't.

[Darth Menace]

I know this is minor stuff in the grand sceme of things, but this had better be worth it for a family summer cruiser. Don't want to tinker on it all winter and end up hating it. I know for a fact I have to get the vibration taken care of before I can enjoy it. Sure it won't be tight as a whistle, but when I was driving it it was vibrating so bad that the rear view mirror was going nuts and the dash sounded as though it had a bee hive in it. I am assuming having tires that aren't ready to explode will help a lot in this area

As for the coil and cap/rotor. Is there any way to test these as far as quality? or is it nothing more than look and see if anything looks worn, etc.

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by Darth Menace

As for the coil and cap/rotor. Is there any way to test these as far as quality? or is it nothing more than look and see if anything looks worn, etc.

Special equipment is used to test the breakdown of a coil or look at the pulse waveforms. Sunpro and Snap-on have made that type of test gear before, but it isn't easily available to the average hobbyist anymore except as used. I have a portable engine tester in my garage that does both points & HEI for this purpose. Without access to the proper test equipment, you're left changing parts that are "obvious" like the cap and rotor and changing parts that aren't, like the coil. One thing to do is when it starts to run like crap and tries to die on you is have a timing light handy. Put the timing light on each of the spark plug wires while idling as best as it can and see if you're missing pulses - that will let you know if it's spark related.

[Darth Menace]

ya I guess cheap enough replacement for the average guy. This is a long to do list...even more now that I started this thread