Still verrrrry frustrated!

[lanciahf]

Also check your new cap and rotor, the new ones are known to be crap or not very precisely made. Put your old cap and rotor back and see what happens.

[zachmac]

the car won't run if the magnet is upside down, did you remove it?

All fixed! It was indeed the magnet under the pickup. When I installed the new pickup I installed it bass akwards. Believe me, you do NOT want to do this. It will try to run but like crap with all kinds of weird gyrations, backfires, etc. and timing jumping all over the place.

The good news is I apparently didn't damage anything else in the process and I now have a working vacuum advance, new rotor and cap and pick up and plugs and wires and coil and ignition module and timing belt and I can't wait to put the radiator fan back on and go for a drive!

[htchevyii]

Glad you finally figured it out! I was pulling out my hair and it's not even my car!

[So Cal Mark]

and you learned so much about the workings of your car during the ordeal. Those are the lessons that are remembered

[mdrburchette]

Yeah, I got a lot of those lessons under my belt....but thankfully not that one. Glad you got her fixed.

[zachmac]

and you learned so much about the workings of your car during the ordeal. Those are the lessons that are remembered

BTW, the lessons we all think we know but constantly seem to violate that I RE-LEARNED here are:

1. Do one thing at a time, finish it and move onto the next. If you do too much at once it makes trouble shooting much more difficult.
2. Pay attention to how it is put together BEFORE you take it apart. If possible, take pictures.
3. It is ALWAYS something you changed. RARELY does something you didn't touch break while you happen to be doing something else.
4. The FORUM is a Godsend as are other eyes. Ask for advice and council and learn from other's mistakes.

Thanks to all on this (now let me go start five other things thereby violating rule 1!).

[htchevyii]

5. One thing always leads to another. That's why you'll always end up doing five things at once,(or more)!

[zachmac]

5. One thing always leads to another. That's why you'll always end up doing five things at once,(or more)!

Very true, several years ago on a Saturday afternoon I decided to pull the old rusty trailer hitch off the bumper of a perfectly good driver condition 1961 caddilac convertible. Two years and many dollars and hours later I was finished.