Stop invoking btnAction() when I remove the debugger

My download() only passes to btnAction() when I include a debugger statement. If I remove the debugger, it no longer passes to btnAction()

  download(helpAction, modal){
    if(this.component === 'templateComponent')
    debugger
      this.templateComponent.btnAction(helpAction, modal);
  }

  btnAction(action, modal) {
    this.page.action = action;
    this.page.helpAction = action;
    this.modal = modal;
    let dto = serializeForm(this.dynForm.form.value, this.dynForm.fieldsDates);
    this.submit(dto);
  }  

and this the HTML   

 <div class="form-group" [formGroup]="group" *ngIf="!field.hidden">
    <label [for]="field.name">{{ field.label }}
      <span *ngIf="required()" class="danger">*</span>
       <a *ngIf="field.help && field.helpAction" href="javascript:;" (click)="download(field.helpAction, modal)">
         <i class="icon-question"></i>
       </a>
    </label>
<ng-select #select [items]="field.options" [bindLabel]="field.name" placeholder="Selecione..." [formControlName]="field.name" [readonly]="field.readonly" (change)="field.action ? onSelect(field.name, field.action, $event) : null" [style]="field.style" [ngClass]="field.class" (close)="select.blur(); select.focus();"></ng-select>
<ng-container *ngFor="let validation of field.validations">
    <small *ngIf="group.get(field.name)?.hasError(validation.name)" class="form-text text-muted danger">{{ validation.message }}</small>
</ng-container>
</div>