I was playing around with the Free-bie mav this weekend. I got it to run,with a hot wire from the batt. to the coil. Runs good sounds good, nice and smooth. Ran for about 1/2 hour. In about 30 seconds. it started to run a little ruff then stalled. I got fuel but no spark. It did this the other day, then after letting it sit for 2 days went out and it started right up. I got no spark at the coil wire. Bad condencer?? Or anything eles you can think of? Russ
dura spark is a very easy convertion. i did it to my 71. let me know if you need help, i can get you the parts needed to do it also... it was definatly a worth while upgrade..
If it had electronic ignition, I'd be suspicious of the ignition box. Something electrical is heating up and dying. After it has time to cool down, it works again. The boxes do this sometime, as I first experienced on a '79 LTD I used to have. With point ignition, I'd be suspicious of the condenser. I might think about the coil also, though they generally just stop working all together. Have you taken a really good look at the distributor cap? For what they cost, I'd replace the coil and the points/condenser along with the cap/rotor. I usually do stuff like that with any used car I buy. You never know when stuff like that are ever replaced, though I don't routinely replace the coils. That's one reason why my cars/trucks rarely break down. Steve has a good point about converting. It'll save you hassles down the road and make the car more dependable.
Hello, If you don,t have it running through the ignition switch and are running it from the battery or the hot side on the starter siloniod you will have to put in a resistor block inline, that will reduce the voltage to about 9.5 volts. The coil and point and condenser on these cars are not made to run on a straight 12 volts. If you don't reduce the voltage, you will burn the condenser and points up. You may be breaking down the points and/or condenser. That same thing ran me nuts for a while about a month ago Mike
Well I put new points and condenser in, that got it started, by the hot wire. Then traced it all back to the ignition switch. replaced it with one from a spare column that I had, and now everything works as it should. everything from the headlights to the tail lights work.:bananaman :bananaman :bananaman :bananaman :bananaman Now it time to get the mold and mildew out of the interior. Thanks for the help guys. Russ
Russ, congrats on getting the bugs worked out and started! :bananaman :bananaman Maybe I missed this somewhere along the lines, so what are plans for your freebie? A daily driver or something else?
4drs are gay. 72 was the last year they made good ones (don't touch this one guys. just hammering russ a lil) you know... dollar for dollar i have the best 2dr mav.
Dave it will be a daily driver. My truck gets 13 mpg @$1.61 a gallon for diesel, so I'm hoping the little 250 will do better than that. Scott I still haven't got the NJ stink out of that car yet. what do you guys smoke over there:confused: Russ
Try this solution. I had a similar problem on the Merc 1. Run a 12 guage wire from the negative on the battery post to the body. Attach a circular end to the wire. Place this end of the wire between the mount on the solenoid and the body. Attach with the mounting screw. This should create a ground that will solve your problem. You appear to have lost grounding in the car.
