Ignition troubles

Now this was VERY unusual for the M37, but it wouldn't start. And when it did, it was missing on at least one cylinder of the six and ran very poorly. I just couldn't figure it out, the plugs are new, spark was strong (when I could get it to run). I thought maybe the timing was off a bit. Alas I figured it out. Curious about changing the timing and having no idea how to do it on this distributor I pulled the cover off. I thought maybe the points were fouled and needed cleaned up. Pulled some fine sand paper thru them, tried to start it again, nothing. A put here and there but that was it. Well my brother was wheeling around in his 59 Willys and it suddenly died in the yard so I went over to bail him out. I pulled his dist cover and checked the power to the points with my meter, good on one side and no power on the other. But the wire connection looked bad so I unhooked every thing pulled the points out cleaned them up and reinstalled then, set the gap, put the cap back on and he was on his way. Well, I went back over to the M37 and decided to roll the engine over to check the gap on the points. With the follower on one of the high points of the rotating shaft, there was no gap! I couldn't believe it, this had to be it! I re-set the points gap and put a bit of grease on the bone dry cam. Put the cap back on and it started immediately. Best I can tell the little plastic cam follower rubbed it's way down to where there was no more gap and the points were not opening. Stranger things have happened but I just wonder how many people have been dumb founded as to why their engine wouldn't run or ran poorly and it just needed the points gap re-set?

A bit off genre but I got a BMW that way once. While stationed in Germany, a friend of mine had an BMW that stopped running. Finally (after several months of tinkering with it), he put it out in the unit that if anyone could get it running, they could have it. I went over, checked fluids, plugs, and re-gapped the points. I cranked it right up and drove it home. Turns out they did a tune up on the car before it stopped running; his wife put the points in but didn't gap them. He was a good sport about it and honored the deal.

I do get stumped when it stops abruptly. If it is running rough, I usually have a hint that something needs adjusting or fixed before it stops. It is the sudden stuff that baffles me.

There have been a bad bunch of aftermarket Mseries points and condensors around for a few years now..Mexican I believe...it is amazing how these trucks run at all considering what you find inside the sealed distributors.. Glad you got it running... Be careful with sand paper and points... be sure it is not aluminum oxide abrasive, because that is an insulator and if a grain or two sticks on the points they will never close and fire... been there...

you can also convert to the civilian distributor. I've seen some people talking of replacing the points setup with a modern setup under the sealed cap.

I lost a ground in the distributor once and was stumped and stopped on the side of the road for a long time till I started checking continuity and found the ground missing. Got it back and it ran like a top.

That is one reason I like modern ignitions and diesel even more

Finally got my 51 started today it has been driving me nuts for three months. I changed pionts, condenser, coil and even cleaned the entire plate with deoxit and nothing. I would get juice to the positive side of coil but nothing on neg side, when I disconnected the neg terminal from coil wou'ld get voltage! Finally got frustrated and was putting distributer housing back on when I touched the neg lead and sparks flew (Dummy left the juice on), and Viola it started. Pulled the housing off, put the VTVM on and Coil was showing proper voltage across the terminals.
Now onto the rebuild of the master cylider and it just might move before winter.

Great news, Ralph! Glad to hear that the ol' M37 will be on the road around here soon!

acetomatoco~ I always carry a bit of emery cloth in my too box so that is what I had used. Good to know about the aluminum oxide abrasive though. Emery has always been my sand paper of choice. You can get it in bulk on eBay prety reasonably. I am set for about the next 10 or 12 years.