beltfed

Tired of fooling with it, purchased all components new/ rebuilt and still doesn’t work . Moving on before I am buried and can’t drive it. Can someone suggest a substitute ignition system to replace what I have?

Thank you!

tbarb

You sound very frustrated, can you post all parts you replaced along with as much info about the car, engine combo etc. Maybe someone will have a suggestion that will fix the problem.

Nowhere Man

well if you have a real L72 you need to keep the TI in place to retain the authenticity and help validate its original. any modification will throw questions and the value will suffer.


Its a fairly a simple system.

Paster

One common problem is the plug connector on the amp. Since it's a soft rubber plug the male spade terminals inside have a tendency to push back into the connector rather than seating in the female amp receptacles.

Another is someone putting the female spade connectors inside the amp on the wrong male terminals on the circuit board.

-Michael

beltfed

Thanks to all who replied! I purchased the car roughly 6 years ago. The car has a matching # motor and I wanted to keep the car as original as possible. I have rebuilt just about everything as I wanted to build the car for my retirement. The TI had been disabled by the prior owner, and now I now why. I purchased the “correct “ distributor coil amplifier and harness. I could not get spark to the spark plug. All new or rebuilt components. After 3 weeks and sending the entire system to a specialist twice, I reinstalled only to find a poor ground at the amplifier caused the problem. Finally got t working and started trying to adjust the Holley. Went to the garage yesterday and no spark again. I want to put in a more reliable ignition so I can enjoy the car. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

68hemi

The OP asked for an alternative ignition not anything to do with your answer. You address EVERY post as though the car is going to be NCRS judged or that something this minor would cast doubt as to how the car left the factory. Over 50 years things go missing, not all people care and it is not that difficult to prove if you know what to look for. If you want to post this way why don't you hang out on the NCRS site?

Nowhere Man

There is no need to yell. Try to prove a L72 car is real and ask high dollars with a points set up and tell me how it goes

68hemi

There as several companies that make what you need such as Pertronix or you could go back to an old school points set up. Search for any of the many threads here about Pertronix.

dplotkin

You have a point, I think most of us agree with you. But it isn't what the OP asked. Say you asked your neighbor...hey, I'm going to paint my house; any recommendation on paint brand? And he said, you should side it, try ACME vinyl. You would be put off.

Funny though and in your defense, this is invariably how I respond to any question my kids ask me.

Dan

68hemi

Your posts like this and many others do nothing to help the OP.

First of all bolding is not yelling on the Internet all caps are and can also be used for words to stand out to emphasize. I use bolding to address the portion of the quote I am responding to if I am only responding to one portion of it.

If I were looking at one of these cars and the engine stamping or the engine option called for T.I. and it was missing I would assume it was replaced because something in the system failed that could not be found before it became so easy to find on the Internet that YOU grew up with. I know because I had a 66 427 that came with it and I had that very problem back in 1982. If I were questioning a car for sale that was supposed to have it I would be looking for mounting holes for the unit and wiring and not really concern myself any further. Besides the OP HAS all of the stuff that he can include with the sale.

Velox

The TI system is very reliable and when all components are installed correctly it is fairly trouble free. Without identifying what exactly you have in your system it is hard to say what is wrong. I have learned a number of things about TI over the years. I have learned that the TI system does require the TI coil, a generic coil or one with wrong resistance will be a problem. You should be using a 1115261 or equivalent coil with a primary resistance of 0.41-0.51 ohms. You can get these at Paragon, LICS etc. Secondly, the system absolutely requires proper grounding and the amp area ground wire going to the radiator support has to be to an area of cleaned off metal well grounded. Thirdly, the original TI amps can go bad after 50 years and a worthy upgrade is to install one of the solid state modules into the original TI amp housing, such as the 48-34B module from LICS or the similar ones at Zip, TI Specialty and other vendors. Fourthly, I found out the hard way that sometimes the distributor connector has been miswired by prior owners. The two wires from the distributor going to the connector are color coded, one is white, one is green, or one has a green stripe. If installed incorrectly the engine will not start or will run poorly (see photo below). Fifth, I found on two cars that apparently intact/good TI wiring harnesses had defects that were not easily found. On one car the wire attachment to the clip going to the coil was badly corroded and loose but did not appear abnormal until it just fell off the clip. I don’t repair the 50 year old TI harnesses it is much safer to replace with new, harness about $150 from the usual vendors. These are just some of the things I look for, there are others. If you go carefully through your system end-to-end it should be readily returned to good working condition. Just my opinion YMMV

tbarb

The breakerless SE will serve you well if you decide to not repair the TI system. If you find a points plate you can install this in your original distributor.

That being said think about giving it one more try at troubleshooting, run a separate ground wire from the amplifier to the battery negative just to eliminate ground issues. Let us know if it makes sparks.

427/42566 coup

T.I. is sensitive to wire length and diameter .New T.I. circuit board and harness good place to start.

nilsthemis

One option is to keep the correct TI distributor and let it trig a MSD amplifier or similar. May require coil change.
I've used the TI distributor with the old style analog MSD-6, never had any ignition trouble.

dplotkin

At this point I'm going to circle back and suggest the OP try again with the TI system. I have K66 TI on my L78. I had two problems with it, one was the famous plug at the amp, and the other was the connector from the ignition switch to the harness, I replaced the harness (which is an hour and improves looks) but most importantly it works.


If K66 was known to be problematic (it was not) I would say sure, ditch it for another form of breakerless ignition. You are far better off getting what you have working. You had it working once, so you know it will. Go back and examine those grounds carefully, check every connection for tightness and cleanliness.


Dan

PAmotorman

check for broken wire in the distributor out put coil with a ohm meter. pull on the wires while taking the readings.

dplotkin

Spoken like a true troubleshooter. Indeed this will find broken strands and connectors that drive us to drink (or scrap a perfectly good K66 system).


Dan

PAmotorman

you learn a lot in years of rebuilding and trouble shooting this system. i always tested the amp first and went on from there.

Tiros

Another is to use the MSD 8572 tach drive distr. w/ vac advance, and the upgraded TI amp.
Been running that way for years, I have the red msd box too, but haven't got around to wiring that up. Didn't seem to be much reason too. It might be my old distributor needs work, but the 8572 seemed to make big difference in overall "smoothness". My old TI distrib can rest on the shelf.

beltfed

Thank to all who replied! Over the course of the past year, I have purchased 3 TI Coils, 2 upgraded circuit boards and a "correct" TI distributor that was completely restored. Finally got it to work 2 weeks ago and wanted to try and dial in the carburetor. Now I have no spark again. Just want to drive the car. I am so disgusted that I may part it out. If I use the distributor recommended above, what other parts do I need? I would prefer not using any of the original parts as in my case they have proven unreliable. Thanks again for help & guidance!