2 and a half hours by the side of the A29 nervously watching idiots try to kill themselves (and me and my good lady) despite the fact we were on a half mile stretch of old Roman road and hence straight with great views of what's to come. Seems some folk only look a few yards ahead. Lots of good folk stopped to see if they could help - even a lady police officer, but I called a recovery truck through my insurance to take us home (we had been out for 80 odd miles, and came to a halt only 5m from home). And before any of my so-called mates pipe up - yes I know the engine is at the back - but it seems to transmit to the wider public you are broken down if you raise the bonnet.
Apart from a very short bit of spluttering just after I refilled the tank - (both my 911's do this - no idea why) - the car ran strongly and smoothly. That is until I 'stretched her legs' a little on said straight sections of the A29 near Ockley. Then it began with an odd misfire, quickly increasing to missing more and more, and then a progressive loss of power as more cylinders were dropping out, until a final giving up altogether. I suspected the points/coil/box right from the start, but was nagged by the thought of the petrol refill 20 miles earlier. What was confusing was that when I tested the output from the coil by the roadside I did get the occasional spark.
Indeed when I got home and pretty much eliminated fuel supply as a cause, I still got the odd spark, and the car would almost run - behaving like the timing was off or the fuel supply was poor, with much spluttering and back-firing.
Anyway I checked the points (no change), changed the coil for the one off the Doctors car (no change), and then for a spare cdi box that I knew was good ..... and off we went. Still wasn't running perfectly, but that turned out to be a poorly set points gap in my diagnostic faffing. Normal service resumed.
Thought I'd record this for the benefit of others in the future. Only one data point I know.
I normally carry spare points/coil/box, but the law of Sod had intervened and I had taken them out a few days earlier so I could carry some stuff under the bonnet. My additional learning is to stuff some tie-wraps in the tool bag as you would need something to hang the replacement cdi box up with - changing it over permanently requires the board be removed and that is a faff, and not a roadside job. You need to get the car to a safe spot quickly. We were lucky in one sense that the weather was good and where it died had reasonably good visibility.
Bigger learning is I'm going for one of Jonny Hart's new fangled boxes when they're available. My faith in 40 year old electronics is evaporating .....
Mick
