Ignition woes

[Brister]

I have a 73 1.7 which would not fire when I
obtained it. I adjusted the points and it fired and started. The previous owner had
removed the fuel injection when installing new rings etc and installed a single barrel carb. The car started promptly for several days and then one day it would not fire. I have replace coil, condensor, rotor and cap.. and it will not fire. Points are .016 and clean. Today I noted what appeared to be a solder link between the point-mounting plate and the sliding plate attached to the vacuum advance. The solder link was broken from a solder point. Is this the grounding link mentioned elsewhere by Dave Darling? Should there be a wire screwed down somewhere instead of this soldered link? Thanks for all suggestions.

[John Rogers]

Some distributors have the soldered braided wire some have the ground by friction it seems. If the solder joint is broken you could have intermittant spark. I tried to solder this once and it would not take. I ended getting a replacement distributor.

[Brister]

Okey, that at least tells me it wasn't just put there by someone on a whim. I'll use braided copper soldering wick, which will take the solder easily and put a longer length than I see here to allow for flexing. That'll do for the interim. I note that Pelican carries a distributor for cars converted to a carb for $75 ..beats the heck out of the $800-$1000 I see for Bosch carbs! Looks like I'll be ordering one. Thank you for the information.

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

All you need to do is to get a new points plate. This should have the ground wire attatched to it. If I remember correctly, it attatches to the distributor body with a screw.

--DD

[Brister]

Thank you Dave. Looks like it's time to take a closer look at my distributor.. the only thing I've ever done with one is replace points and condensor and connect a capacitive discharge system 25 years ago to my Healey.
I'm getting a whole 'nother education with this 914. Thanks for the tip.