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73 Apollo working like a top one minute and now won't run!
350 B with auto trans.
The engine will start and stay running as long as you hold the key in "start", as soon as released to "run", it quits.
Coil is not getting voltage in run position.
Failed at my Oldsmobile buddies yard(of course!!) and we used a cheater re from the battery to coil to get me home.
Knowledgeable Buick guys know what this is???
Missing the Ap
Dave
Have you looked at the starter wiring?
Really only two likely possibilities:
1. A break in the wiring between the switch and the coil.
2. Switch not making contact in "run" position.
I know you are going to want to replace the switch. Well, don't do it until you check out the wiring first. If you replace the switch, I can guarantee the problem will be in the wiring.
Btw, wiring includes all plug connectors between the switch and the coil. Start with the firewall connector.
When you find the problem, please let us know where it was.
Ray
Raycow, you are one intuitive guy!
On the way home Friday I bought a new ignition switch (only $21.00 why not?)
Figured I'd stab it in on the weekend.
Then got to thinking, this IS cheating, I've gotta get the wiring checked through first.
Gone about as far as I can without a proper Apollo wiring diagram. You see, I just got this Ap, and all of my other Buick manuals are for older cars.
Bought a wiring diagram on Ebay but it's not arrived yet.
Dave
I has one like that. It turned out to be the pin at the firewall connector for the resistance wire to the coil. It was not the front of the pin, but the back had been poorly soldered from the factory. No amount of sanding and manipulating the pin made it much better until I removed and re-soldered the pin. Now, it starts every time.
Nah, not intuition. It's more like Murphy's Law.:clonk:Quote:
Originally Posted by Canadian Buick Mogul
Ray
OK, thanks to Bob and Ray and everyone for responding/helping on the Apollo Mission no-stay-running issue. I realize this seems like a long time since I wrote in with the problem, but it's been a busy summer. We loaded up the 61 bubbletop in the enclosed trailer and put 3600 miles on the motorhome attending Granby (Quebec) and Bothwell (Ontario) car shows. So the little Ap sat quietly awaitingrepair. Well, pleased to report that after searching several nights and trying a plethora of experiments, the problem revealed itself, and the repair cost a whopping $0 dollars and $0 cents. We first checked the fusible links at the starter, and they passed the continuity test ( I know not a guarantee of good but we believed it), then we tried the new switch just to more-or-less disprove it was the switch. This is only about an hour to just lower the column and unplug harness/plug into new switch and activate with a small screwdriver. Problem remained -- not the switch so hooked the original back up. Now, at the coil, and using a genuine Apollo wiring diagram I got off Ebay, we found the wire that starts the car, and the wire it runs on after starting. Pulling back the run wire, out of the loom, and ta-da she came apart at the worst possible place to locate; at rear of engine and dodown a bit near top of tranny; probably getting heat and condensation, the wire had failed. This is not a copper wire, rather a resistance wire which is not aluminum or steel, but has that color. Of course, we found that someone else had monkeyed with this wire previously ; signs of electrical tape non-factory. So, I went upstairs and stripped out a piece of this type wire from another old harness I had. This is, as I said, not a copper wire, but some other metal; sort of coarse strands, with a black coating and a sort-of cloth jacket white in color. Having placed in about as much of this resistance wire as we reckoned the previous hacker stripped out, we turned the key and BOOM! she starts at the drop of a hat like she always did. Runs like a top. Now we had to repair the "collateral damage" muffler (major-MAJOR-backfire trying to start when problem first began!!!) . I had found a NOS Buick muffler on Ebay in the interim, and installed this; what a quite sound, just the way I like it. No one apparently wants to keep single exhaust on their Ap's as I got this NOS mooflay for $42.00. So, sorry for the long-drawn-out wrap-up however in the hopes that someone else can benefit from this, submitting the summary of repair strategy. Dave the Buick Man
glad to hear it.
Dave, you proved that persistence pays off, and the important thing is, you beat Murphy at his own game!
Thank you for your feedback. It will be a lot of help to the next person who has this problem.
Ray