Something wrong with my distributor?

[SeriesShorty]

I just swapped out my military distributor to a 25D so I have nothing to compare. I found a cloth wire covering, doesn't feel like there is any actual wire inside of though, loose on one end. To the right of it you can just make out a small spot of solder on the plate.

Is something wrong with that?

Thanks,
J

[mechman]

Looks like the internal ground, which grounds the advance plate (which your points ride on) to the distributor casing. If this is broken, your points will not ground and your coil will not fire.

You can solder on a new wire, or figure out a way to attach it. I've seen repairs where a new ground wire was bench soldered to a clip that was then pushed over the edge of the advance plate. Either way, that will keep your baby from running.

[badvibes]

J-

Mechman is dead on with this one. had the same thing happen in my Series. Fabbed up a replacement wire and put it in and solved the problem. Easy fix but it was a tough diagnosis. In my case the insulation on the wire remained intact and the wire looked OK.

Jeff

[SeriesShorty]

Wow, at least I'm getting better at noticing when things are amiss. Thanks for confirming my fears, and even better that it is easily cured. Hopefully that is what is causing the coil to not throw any juice to the dizzy. If the rain has a break tomorrow I hope to solder in a new piece of wire.

Slowly but surely I'm gonna get this thing up and running again!