Technical '72 500L Refuses to Start

[the hobbler]

I had one of those simple electronic ignitions and funnily enough the car stopped dead one day, it would idle but very rough, went through the carb, timing, tappets ect and left it for a month, old school dad comes along and says take the point and condenser out of the spare engine and give it a lash, hey presto. Timed it again and that's now how I'm running. In my head it couldn't have been the ignition cause again in my head it was bullet proof. I had posts up about it. If it turns out not to be this it would be wise to carry a points set up as a spare for if and when the day does come.

two things to remember about the electronic ignitions, of ALL types and prices. (1) thet don't like getting hot---continually being over 100C kills them as does (b) having the ignition left on and the engine not running. As has been suggested, try returning it to 'points' and see if that cures your starting problem

 

[VaBene]

From your description I think you're not even getting a little combustion 'bang' from your car, right? My 500D was refusing to start (not even a bang) and I had to start from the basics: fuel, spark, and timing. I confirmed that I had fuel to the carb and then found I had no spark.

My coil wasn't within spec, so I replaced it, but that didn't resolve my issue either. I ended up rebuilding the distributor and in doing so found that my points were grounded to the distributor body. I believe that the insulating papers (mylar) between the point spring and the distributor were allowing it to short and kill my spark. I verified my condenser was good with a voltmeter and reinstalled the distributor after installing new insulators at the distributor body. She fired up in seconds after not running for close to a year.

Anyway, FWIW, if your car isn't even TRYING to start, then I think you have an ignition problem. If you have fuel pressure to a new carb, then you should be getting some combustion even if its really poor. If you still think your issue is carb-related, then you should be able to pull a spark plug (after cranking the engine) and see/smell fuel on the electrode. If you can't detect any fuel, then you might look for carburetor issues, but I'm thinking your issue is ignition related.

In bocca al lupo (good luck)!