I think that there is a high possibility that there is an add on from the broken hose link. By add on, I had noticed that the car had been stalling at lights now and again, something that it had never done before. Looking for the new coil, I found indications that stalling at idle is an indicator of a coil going bad.

The parts that I find odd was that the car started up with no problem after the break had been reattached. It was the next morning that it would not run at all. Then when I looked for spark when it would not start, there was consistant arch of significant length away from the coil wire at the distributor - albeit a yellow arch. Also, when I pulled a plug and left it attached to the distributor wire and grounded the threads, the plug was sparking consistantly.

When Roy was able to stop by, and we applied his spark testing rig, there was next to no sign of a spark, and when I tried to recreate my test approach with copper wire to ground the spark line, this time there was no arch. On removing the coil I found that the secondary showed an open on the ohm meter.

My feeling is that I have not given this car the care that it has needed, and it has run like a tank for me for a long time, and while it had been running well, I kept putting off working on it until it started to tell me that it needed help. The radiator break and the drenching of a significant area of the engine compartment was simply too much for many tired elements of the system.

To complicate the simplicity of it just being a coil problem - while it did start immediately on the replacing the coil the other day and ran strong - it would not start this morning!!!??? It tried to run numerous times, but I could not find the right combination of pedel and continuing. It clearly had no interest in running by just turning the ignition key as it did the evening before.

After I had let the battery recharge and considered how it had responded durning the first effort, I started the second attempt with the idea that it had started the night before after the engine had been turned over and the flooded with the old coil. When I put in the new coil, it ran immediately. This morning I had noticed that when the pedel was pushed clear to the floor, the car would immediately try to run when I let up on the pedel. This afternoon, after again seeing no interest in running just by turning the key, I floored it for just a few cranks and backed off immediately - the car would run for a bit. I continued the process for a while, with the car running longer and longer each time until final it was running at idle. If I pressed down the pedel when it was trying to run, it would die immediately. After letting it run at idle for about ten minutes, the car ran really well. I took it for a drive for the first time since the radiator problem, and it truly felt like it had no problems, turned it off, and it started again with no trouble at all. After letting it set for another three hours in the cold, (low 20's here in Detroit) it would only start using this method of flooring it and backing off - until it again idle on its own.

I think that there is a direct cause and effect, but I am afraid that the effects are multiple, and I will be learning a lot more about some of the details of this fuel system as I catch up on lacking attention to maintenance.

Again thanks for all of your help and Roy for you time as well.

Marsden

P.S.

Did I mention the ABS light now comes on all of the time?? It never did that before! At least I know a way to get it to run, and it runs strong once it is warm. I'll figure it out.