Dead Spider - Revived!

["Christopher A. Stephenson" <cs_tscg@domain.elided>]

Many thanks to all those who responded to my plea for help. All of the
advice I received was excellent. Here is the scoop;

I originally suspected a fuel pump problem because as I was counting the
cars whizzing by under their own power a fellow Alfa enthusiast  stopped
to offer roadside assistance. He was the one who told me that the fuel
pump must be bad because he could not hear it buzzing with the key on.
As a new Alfa owner, this made sense. I have an old Jaguar (and had an
older Volkswagen) that has an electric fuel pump which indeed  buzzes as
soon as the key is turned on. So, the local NAPA store had a fuel pump
in stock for $240 which I promptly bought and installed. No luck. By the
way, the fuel pump only operates when the car is running, not when the
key is on. Also, if you fully depress the pedal, it activates a short
burst of fuel from the fuel pump I guessing to prime the engine.

I then started to trace electrical circuits. I determined that I had no
hot wire to the fuel pump. This makes sense. The pump is only
operational when the engine is running. However, I didn't know that
then. So I checked all fuses, connections, etc.

I started poking around in the engine and determined that I wasn't
getting any spark. I started there and worked backward. FIrst I checked
the distributor. Everything looked new and in good health. Then I
checked the coil. Hot wire going in was ok, but the wire going out was
also hot. I cranked the engine with the test light on the outgoing wire.
It was hot all the time! The juice was flowing in and out of the coil
and not ever going to the plugs! So my first thought was that the coil
was bad. I had an extra, so I replaced it. Spider was still dead.

So, I started tracing back through the circuits. That's when I thought
my ignition box might be bad. I also checked my rev transmitter and the
Reference Point Transmitter. BINGO! The Reference Point Transmitter was
not connected to the engine. The bold had stripped out. Well, I used
some JB Weld and was able to reattach it. IT'S ALIVE!

So far, I have put approximately 200 miles on the car with no problems.
Thanks again for everyone who helped.

Chris Stephenson

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