Greetings.

I have a '69 6 cylinder that just rolled into my garage. Was my dad's car. He and his buddies decided to put a 123Ignition distributor in and then couldn't get it to run. They got disinterested in it and it sat in the back of his hangar for a year so I drug it home.

The first thing I found was that the fuel pump wasn't working. Replaced that, swapped fresh gas, traced the wiring to insure the ignition wires went the right place, noted that the rotor is in the correct general position for TDC on #1. I pulled the #1 plug and held it against the block while turning on the ignition. I get spark twice and then no more. Same for the next plug down.

Coil? Bad battery?

Thanks in advance,
Steve near Chicago.

 

Welcome to the community.
I don't now anything about the 123 distributor, but there are others here that have experience with it. If you do a search on this forum I am sure something will come up.
Beautiful E-type. Good luck.
Bill.

 

Hi Steve and congrats on the car! It's possible that the 123 unit was damaged prior to your taking ownership. I would remove as many "possibles'' as you can.. put in a fresh/checked battery, for example. Here is a link to the 123 troubleshooting. You can also get to "manuals and downloads" from this link:

https://123ignitionusa.com/trouble-shooting/


I had a 123 (base) put in my 69 S2 about 2 months ago .. working fine. You sound like you have good mechanical skills and these cars are not complicated... air/fuel/spark.

best wishes, and keep us posted so we all may learn!

 

PS, I also bought the 'matching" Bosch coil and wires from them... didn't want to hear "well you didn't put in such N such". Saving my nickels to buy a spare cap and rotor.

 

Update;

I removed the distributor and reinstalled it. Rechecked the routing of the plug wires. Set the static timing at 10* BTDC and and used the123 instructions to reset the timing with the diode and actually got it to run, but poorly, missing badly and bucking and not taking throttle. Double-checked the timing with a light. The missing got much worse with the addition of throttle.

The new coil got it running but didn't solve my problems. Got a new cap and rotor coming.

Carbs next?

 

Hmmm. I'd check the carbs too. Are the carb's dampening pistons well oiled? Are the carb moving parts free? the jets clean?
I think you are following the right path.
Good luck.
Bill.

 

Just got off the phone with GTJoey. Problem solved! minor wiring issue.
Runs like BUTTER!

Thanks Joe.

 

Glad to hear that you found the problem and that the car is running well. That is always very rewarding.
Bill.