Loose wire inside distributor

[thomas1984]

Hi!

I suppose this has been posted to death. I keep on finding things I wonder regarding my car. Yesterday I was starting to work on setting up the PVC and breather hoses when I decided to take a peek inside the distributor cover.

I found a Pertronix Ignitor. I also found a loose wire. The PO keeps on mocking me with new surprises. Isn't the wire supposed to be connected somewhere? At first I though it would be under the screw that holds the Ignitor module. Then I saw a screw hole on the plate with the Motorcraft text and thought it might go there. But after watching a video from CJ Pony Parts I saw the ground wire was going down the hole in the distributor. This makes me curious

Is it me or is something wrong? Also, is it time to replace the rotor? Please see the two pictures.

 

[Don C]

That is the ground wire for the breaker plate, provides the ground for points. It's not needed with the Pertronix, as it gets its ground through the black wire. It would normally connect to the screw that's just north of the red wire in your first picture. I connected it anyway, just so the breaker plate would be grounded and no spurious electrical impulses would be floating around.

 

[thomas1984]

Thanks a lot Don for the explanation, I really appreciate it. I can sleep good tonight knowing this! ::thumb::

 

[SteveO_71]

Looks like its time to replace that rotor also. They are a cheap fix.

 

[thomas1984]

Looks like its time to replace that rotor also. They are a cheap fix.

Yes, I just ordered one, $9, fuss! I have to cut off my spending on car parts and other hobbies, me and my wife are saving for a house with my own garage!

 

[thomas1984]

Just out of the blue I was lucky to find a screw with the correct dimension and thread size at work today, although being torx. I tried to clean the distributor a bit and installed a new rotor. I also have a new distributor cap I will install at later time.

 

[thomas1984]

Just wanted to post an update. I was so sad all week as I was not able to get the engine started last weekend. I got almost no spark but intermittent orange spark.

I had previous recharged the battery a couple of weeks ago. During this spring I have replaced the sparkplugs, installed a new rotor, new distributor cap, new ignition cables and fixed a leakage at the choke heater tubes. I setup the PCV system with help from forum members at 460ford.com and replaced a couple of hoses. I was trying to start up last weekend after all things I replaced or altered. The starter tried to rotate the engine but no power to ignite the sparkplugs. I was tired so I went home. Yesterday I went back to the garage after reading a tonne of threads about the engine not starting. I tried different things, used an volt meter to do some readings here and there but nothing got the engine starting. So I went home, kind of grumpy, slept on it. This morning I thought I'd go through everything I've recently made changes to or replaced. Then I thought of how I grounded the ground strap inside the distributor (red X in the picture). I went to the garage today and grounded it to the screw that also fastenes the Pertronix Ignitor (green circle in the picture). She fired right up and ran pretty good! I am so happy now because I've had so much bad luck with this car. Finally it's a step further to get the car through the inspection. I just need to mount the side marker lights and bezel and maybe do some adjustment to the timing and carburetor. ::thumb::