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The condenser sounded very likely, especially given the nasty shock that little sucker gave me last night when I was trying to figure out why #4 was not firing at all. Only trouble was that it was nearly new, replaced back when I did my complete tune up when trying to sort out my poor mileage. I hear that they can be bad, so I went to pick up a couple new ones. Guys at the parts counter gave me a blank stare, had to explain what it was, they looked it up, none at the warehouse or stores. None handy here in St. Louis. Dang.
So, I dug around for a while and came up with my 67's severed coil, and a spare severed ignition switch I got with a new dash. I installed these in the 68 (which took a few hours of cursing and contortions to get the IGN switch tumbler to release). Installed the pre-cut coil and switch, wired up the crane unit exactly as it was on the 67, swapped in the 67's distributor cap, rotor, magnecore wires, and gave it a try... didn't work, a little pip, no start.
Tried to adjust the timing by rotating the distributor, nada, just "coughs" and "whumps." Recall that this is very similar to what happened to me last November when I put the B20E into my wagon. Playing with the timing fixed that problem, but not here.
I decided to re-read my material on ignition, and noticed that the distributor gear was pointing 180 degree away from #1 cylinder. I suspected that the original owner might have put it in backwards, so I pulled the gear, rotated it 180 and put it back in.
Still nothing...
Rechecked the wires and firing order 1-3-4-2. Checked that the rotors points to #1 cylinder at #1 TDC (I removed the spark plug to confirm, and I checked the timing pulley position. Everything jives with Ron's ignition article, but the car will not start, or ever pretend to start.
I'm not sure what else to try. I used my timing light to confirm current to all four sparks and coil while cranking. There is plenty of fuel (gas-wet plugs), the compression appears correct (#1 TDC at 16 degrees and rotor pointing to #1). I know this ignition unit was fine when I removed it and I know that current is getting to the coil and wires... Running out of ideas that woudl jive with the sudden failure of the system...
I don't get it, there should not be a problem here, but there is.
I've got to get this fixed. My taking the family 940 every day is not going to be doable for much longer.
Does anything I've mentioned sound wrong?
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