Intermittent no start

[nlspider]

Hi all; 1982 Spider 2000. Intermittently won’t start. Battery is good. Engine turns over. Gas tank is full. Interestingly I was able to easily push start it. Once started drove without problems. Of course when I brought it to my mechanic it started every time. Then wouldn’t start for us at home. He doesn’t want to just replacing parts randomly so any suggestions?
This is my wife’s summer car. She won’t drive it until it’s “fixed”. Understandably she doesn’t want to be stranded.

[TX82FIAT]

My first suspect would be the older ignition switch is not making good contact some of the time leading to a no start. Have you tried unhooking the negative battery cable and re-hooking after the no start. I have seen this work on occasion for non starts. if it is the ignition switch you have a couple things that can improve the performance. There is an ignition switch relay kit that can be installed in about 20 minutes that will take the load off the switch once the car is started that will preserve the life of the switch since it is a central circuit for most of the amps. if the switch is gone and you need a new switch I would install the new switch with the relay for years of strong running. The electricals on these cars can fail for a number of reasons mostly related to resistance in switches, connections and grounds. One the wiring is well sorted the electrical issues slow to an occasional gremlin.

[nlspider]

Thanks for those suggestions. The car has started every time since. Replacing the ignition with a relay sounds like a good idea.

[Odoyle]

Possible that magnetic pick up assembly (white wire coming out of the distributor connected to the ignition control module behind coil) may be failing. Had a similar issue where the car would intermittently not start when hot, replaced the pick up module and ignition control module and all has been well since. You can test the pick up assembly by measuring the resistance across the two wires at the connector, should be between 700-800 ohms.

Maybe try testing the pick up assembly during a no-start condition to see if the resistance is within spec as well.