I need a fresh set of eyes as well as brains to look at my 1917 Maxwell. I've exhausted my knowledge as well as my patience trying to get this thing running.
Howard Dennis
Howard,
I sent you a PM.
Well, I went back through every single thing I had done before and nothing had changed and everything checked out as before. I tried a test light across the points and it would work or not randomly even though every test done by manually opening the points resulted in a strong spark that jumped a half inch gap with ease. Took the points out, filed the points and the same random test light function but I noticed that when I rotated the rotor on the disengaged distributor, the distributor cap clip was laying open and near the coil output post and would get a strong spark every time the points opened at the four corners of the distributor at the exact cap post positions so I knew it was both timed correctly and working correctly even though I couldn't get it do this with a test light. The next logical step was to try starting it one more time and it fired up and ran perfectly! What the problem has been for the last six weeks, I haven't a clue.
Now I need your opinions as owners of thermo syphon cars: I let the Maxwell run about 15 minutes at a semi fast idle while I fine tuned my adjustments and checked for leaks and noises. I then noticed a few drops of water coming out of the overflow and immediately shut it off. From past experience on water pump cars I was expecting the situation to get worse and make a real mess as the stopped flow caused the radiator to pump out quarts of water, instead the dripping ceased as soon as I killed the motor.
Do you think I just overfilled the system and as it warmed up it just sought it's normal level?
Howard Dennis
That would be my assumption unless it gets worse.
Glad you got it running. Not knowing what the problem was would still concern me.
That's the really annoying part when something like this happens you always wonder if and when it will rear it's ugly head again!
Howard Dennis
I would think it's just getting to it's happy level. When I've over-filled my speedster she coughs up the extra and it's no big deal.