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Home » Public Forums » GMCnet » [GMCnet] Reviving the Cad 500  () 1 Vote
Re: [GMCnet] Reviving the Cad 500 [message #163128 is a reply to message #163108] Fri, 16 March 2012 01:37 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
ljdavick is currently offline  ljdavick   United States
Messages: 3548
Registered: March 2007
Location: Fremont, CA
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Senior Member
Excellent news! Congratulations on beating the beast.

Larry Davick
Sent from my iPad

On Mar 15, 2012, at 7:15 PM, Ken Henderson <hend4800@bellsouth.net> wrote:

> Hooray!!! I passed start-'er-up today, finally!
>
> I was delayed until almost 3 PM by 95 yo problems. Then the 75 yo
> problems began. I bought a new ignition module to satisfy yesterday's
> diagnosis. After installing it, the spark indicator was a little more
> reliable and the timing strobe USUALLY flashed -- but no life to the
> engine a'tall. So, once more I went through all the setup stuff:
> Find #1 TDC, set crank with the timing indicator at exactly the
> desired BTDC, rotate the distributor to set the reluctor & pickup
> points together. With that all set up -- AGAIN -- I did something I
> should have done a long time ago: Fabricated a simple stiff wire
> pointer to mount under a convenient bolt with the free end adjacent to
> a scribe mark on the distributor body. Now, if I tinker with the
> setting, I can easily get back to an exactly known setting.
>
> With the air cleaner cover off, try starting again -- STILL no workee
> -- even with the strobe flashing, showing the planned 10* BTDC, and
> both injectors squirting nice cones.
>
> About then, Stick showed up, so he can testify to my frustration and
> the gymnastics I went through: Finally resorting to reading the
> manual, I started through the EFI troubleshooting charts and wiring
> diagrams -- not necessarily in any logical order. First steps of the
> troubleshooting procedure: 1. Ignition on. 2. Is SES light
> illuminated NOPE! So, I spent 30-45 minutes trying to figure out why
> the LED Service Engine Soon warning indicator on my custom dash was no
> longer working. I STILL don't know, but I finally got around to
> connecting a test lamp in place of it and getting that to shine.
>
> After lots of other tests, including Ohming-out every ground
> connection, I decided the wiring was still OK and that there were no
> disconnected leads like those that delayed my first re-start. So I
> sat and thought about the rules: With fuel, compression (which I had
> redundantly checked), and spark, all now obviously at the correct
> times, it's GOT to run! But it doesn't. What have I NOT replaced?
> How 'bout the coil? It's putting out, I KNOW that (I even got bitten
> once yesterday), but it's not NEW.
>
> Stick had to go to the spelling bee then, so I lost my moral support.
> That didn't stop me from tearing down the HEI distributor cap to
> remove the coil -- a first for me! Can you believe that after all
> these years, that's true??? I didn't know that the coil cover, held
> on with two (sometimes 3) self-tapping screws conceals the coil and
> the 5 terminals inside that little overhang on the side. The coil is
> held into the cap with another 4 self-tapping screws through the iron
> core, one of those also retains a wire lead from the coil winding.
> Still another presses the core down against a convoluted metal strip
> which makes up the center terminal of the 3-contact inner connector.
> The outer two of those terminals are the BATT and TACH terminals, and
> extend to those outer two locations where the single connectors
> attach. Those terminals just seat in spaces in the distributor cap
> and are retained by the coil cover.
>
> Guess what -- that center terminal under the coil core was as rusted
> as if it had been laying out in the yard for 36 years, instead of
> hidden under there!
>
> When I tore down my nearly-new Cad non-computer controlled distributor
> cap, I found a nice shiny new coil with 3 shiny terminals, so I popped
> them into the cap still on the engine.
>
> Hit the starter ... Varooom! It runs!!! Hallelujah!!!
>
> And even after I shut it down, it did it again. And again,..And Again!
>
> If I had just Ohm'd out the assembled distributor cap/coil
> combination, I'd probably have found the bad connection in the coil
> primary caused by that rusty strip. :-(
>
> I finally let it run long enough to get hot, then shut it down and
> drained the oil. With a jug of oil sitting at the driver's seat (so I
> can't forget there's none in the engine), I left it to drain for the
> night and came in to brag to HER about how I got IT running -- after
> only 3 wasted days of dumb "troubleshooting". :-)
>
> We'll make it to Shawnee yet! That's a challenge, JimK.
>
> Ken H.
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 10:29 PM, Ken Henderson wrote:
>> Well, I flunked crank-er'-up still again.
>> ...
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Larry Davick
A Mystery Machine
1976(ish) Palm Beach
Fremont, Ca
Howell EFI + EBL + Electronic Dizzy
 
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