1981 Spider sluggish & intermittent starting problem

[ajnsbdfr]

My 1981 Spider has problems starting sometimes. For the last few weeks, when starting, it would be slow to turn over initially or not engage the starter or engine at all. When I would try again, it would slowly turn the engine. Sometimes it took 2 or 3 tries to get the car started. Almost like the timing is not right, but once started, the engine runs and idles fine.

Tonight I noticed when I pushed the wires up into the back of the ignition switch, the battery light and radio would regain power again. Is this an indication of a bad ignition switch? or just a loose connection that can be tightened up?

Could the sluggish starting be attributed to the loose connection to the ignition switch? Or is that a totally separate problem?

As for the timing... when I adjust the timing with a timing light, the timing marks (painted on) don't match the best idle position (by ear), so I've been adjusting the timing by feel/sound. My guess is these timing marks were placed later and don't match the actual optimum setting. Is this safe to assume or is there some deeper problem I should address?

Thanks!

[jfrawley]

I'm no expert like some of the folks here but I had a similar issue with timing. When I timed it to the correct number (10 degrees) it ran like a pig. Very sluggish with no real get up and go. To get it to run well I had to bump the timing way up. Like you, it ran better when timed by ear not numbers. I fought it for quite some time and here's what I did to sort it out. First, make sure the mark on the crank pulley is in the right spot. Run your fingernail over the pulley and you'll feel the cut out in the pulley for the mark. If it's correct then read and follow this:

http://www.artigue.com/fiat/books/Artig ... 124_MM.pdf

Once all the items noted by Brad are working correctly or replaced (I ended up replacing them all), it should time to 10 degrees and run much better. In my case the major culprit was the coolant temp sensor. It was working but not sending the right numbers to the ECU. Once that was replaced and the other components were working correctly, the sluggish performance at 10 degrees went away.