Second time in the last year I lost ignition in my 360, backfired and exploded a muffler. I put an Ignitor in the distributor and a new coil 2 years ago.

Very sporadic. It has skipped maybe 5 or 6 times, and backfired the 2.

Any ideas? How do I troubleshoot?

 

Takes 2 things to make the bomb, fuel & spark. If you are getting fuel (gas) into the muffler (enough for an explosion) the carb needs work.

There are others here that can better prescribe a course of action. Which carb (brand & model) is currently on the truck?




John

 

2100 2 BBL, newly rebuilt. Blew the first muffler b4 the rebuild and the second after. Its loses ignition and fills the exhaust with fuel then regains ignition, in about 2 seconds.

There are no obvious shorts, etc.

Are the Petronix Ignitors pretty dependable? Is there a way to test them?

Going to do the cap and rotor thing today.

 

When installed correctly, the Petronix is a very reliable solid ign. system.




John

 

Make sure the distributor is grounding properly. I had a truck once that lost spark, a friend tried getting it running again. He turned the distributor while cranking, it made the connection and blew one of the mufflers wide open.

 

thanks John and Jared.

I put new wires, cap and rotor on. purrs like a wildcat. the ground looked good. i think the problem was the coil wire. It looked ragged.

thanks again fellers. btw, i love both your signatures

 

Hey, You will have to come up with and have one of your own.




John

 

Did it again this evening. There is no pattern. Was running like new, then loss of power, boom and back to full power in about 2 seconds. Strange

 

Driving this thing with no muffler raises the testosterone level about 50 points

 

Oh, now that's JUST what I need.... the Old Lady complains enough as it is!

 

is it possible that you are losing power to the coil? maybe a flaky ignition switch?

 

Hey that's a possibility I didn't consider. There have been half dozen times it failed to do anything when turning the key. I assumed it was the goofy gear shift not in position.

Is there a way to test or better to just replace?

 

it'll be tough to test it, since its intermittent.

but if you want to try it, here's what i'd do:
disconnect the wire from the starter relay "S" terminal (so the truck won't try to start)
disconnect the wire from coil +.
voltmeter black lead to ground
voltmeter red lead to the wire you just took off the coil +
if you have a 'continuity' setting on the meter, use it.
if you don't, you should be able to read ~9v at the wire with the key in start or run.
(you could also do this with a test light)

turn the key on/off/on/off...see if you can get it to misbehave.