This is from my brother Steve in WI:
This is a photo of the rotor in the distributor on our 722 Bobcat. The 722 has a 98 CID Ford gasoline engine, it's an industrial version of the engine that I think was used in Pintos.
The distributor is made by Bosch. Parts are hard to find. Our local NAPA guy was able to cross reference the Bosch numbers and get NAPA stuff.
After installing all of the new stuff I expected the Ford to crank right up. Much to my dismay it was completely dead, no fire at the spark plugs at all.
It had me baffled. Thinking maybe it was a bad ignition switch I checked the power to the coil, it had 12 volts in both the 'run' and 'start' positions. I checked the new condenser, even replaced the coil and spark plug wires. Still no spark.
Yesterday I cranked the engine while my helper held the primary wire from the distributor close to a grounded part on the engine. A spark was there but we still had nothing at the spark plugs.
I pulled the distributor cap and rotor off and checked them with an Ohm meter. The cap was good but the brand new rotor was open between the center contact and the tip of the rotor.
If you can see it in the photo, the center contact is a silver color, the tip of the rotor is copper colored. It's all sealed in but apparently it's made with two parts of metal and the two were not in contact with each other.
To make sure of things, I took my VOM along when I exchanged the bad rotor at the NAPA store. The replacement rotor did show continuity between those two points.
The Bobcat likes the new rotor a lot better. It sure was good to hear the Ford come to life, I was beginning to wonder if it ever would.
I have run into bad spark plugs and bad condensers right out of the box but never a bad rotor. Before I checked it yesterday it hadn't occurred to me that a rotor could be defective.
BJ at NAPA has been in the parts business for a long time. He had never seen it before either.
It is even marked Made In USA, could understand it if it had been made in China or Mexico.
This is a photo of the rotor in the distributor on our 722 Bobcat. The 722 has a 98 CID Ford gasoline engine, it's an industrial version of the engine that I think was used in Pintos.
The distributor is made by Bosch. Parts are hard to find. Our local NAPA guy was able to cross reference the Bosch numbers and get NAPA stuff.
After installing all of the new stuff I expected the Ford to crank right up. Much to my dismay it was completely dead, no fire at the spark plugs at all.
It had me baffled. Thinking maybe it was a bad ignition switch I checked the power to the coil, it had 12 volts in both the 'run' and 'start' positions. I checked the new condenser, even replaced the coil and spark plug wires. Still no spark.
Yesterday I cranked the engine while my helper held the primary wire from the distributor close to a grounded part on the engine. A spark was there but we still had nothing at the spark plugs.
I pulled the distributor cap and rotor off and checked them with an Ohm meter. The cap was good but the brand new rotor was open between the center contact and the tip of the rotor.
If you can see it in the photo, the center contact is a silver color, the tip of the rotor is copper colored. It's all sealed in but apparently it's made with two parts of metal and the two were not in contact with each other.
To make sure of things, I took my VOM along when I exchanged the bad rotor at the NAPA store. The replacement rotor did show continuity between those two points.
The Bobcat likes the new rotor a lot better. It sure was good to hear the Ford come to life, I was beginning to wonder if it ever would.
I have run into bad spark plugs and bad condensers right out of the box but never a bad rotor. Before I checked it yesterday it hadn't occurred to me that a rotor could be defective.
BJ at NAPA has been in the parts business for a long time. He had never seen it before either.
It is even marked Made In USA, could understand it if it had been made in China or Mexico.