I have this 8 N for a few years, replaced a lot of parts, I have new electronic ignition, coils, rotor and cap. It was running fine til one day the rotor contact burnt off. Since then I can't get it to run. Any ideas?
Chuck
Chuck, I agree with Barry. The 8N has a very simple ignition and fuel delivery system that are normally easy to troubleshoot. Your addition of an electronic ignition may have added some complexity to the equation.
You said the rotor was burned. Normally, the rotor does nothing more than take the high voltage pulse from the coil and route it to the proper spark plug. The circuit is open because of the spark plug gap. There is no way any short circuit should exist that would not be obvious. Perhaps your spark is so hot that it welded the rotor contact to the distributor cap contact. Maybe the cap is the problem now. Are you sure the cap is seated properly?
If you are not getting a spark to the plugs, then the next thing to check is the coil. You can check this easily by checking for power to the coil when the key is turned on. Next, on the output side of the coil (the wire that goes to the distributor), remove the wire. Also, pull the coil high voltage wire going to the top of the distributor and put it about about 1/8 inch from a good ground. Now, ground the small output wire from the coil momentarily. When you remove the ground, you should see a nice spark from the high voltage coil wire to ground. If you don't, the coil may be bad. Other wise, if you get a spark, then your problem is internal to the distibutor and the electronic ignition.
When you installed the new ignition, did you put a ballast resister in series with the input to the coil? Was the coil the original coil or supplied with the converstion kit. Is it a 12V coil? Many/most 12V coils have an internal ballast resistor, but if not, yours may need one. What the ballast does is to keep the points from being a dead short to ground when they close. The ballast resistor is an addition to the resistance of the ignition coil's windings and will keep points from burning out. I'm just not sure whether your electronic ignition needs something similar. That's why I said earlier that your troubleshooting may be more complex.
If you are good with a voltmeter, you can figure out where the problem is without all the things I mentioned earlier, but you can normally troubleshoot a simple 8N electrical system without any use of a voltmeter or other test equipment if you know how.
Good luck.
