Hi all.....Im new to the ford flathead stuff. Anyhow I have a 46 flathead that has no spark. New 12v coil with internal resistor, new 12v condensor, new champion plugs, cleaned up the points and cap/rotor terminals. Re-gapped the points to .2, Everthing seems right. I have looked at other threads with no luck. Any ideas?? What should I check for?? Help would be much appreciated! Thanks.
First set points to .016! To start diagnosis, get a small jumper wire and an extra plug wire...remove the small wire and the big wire going to distrib from the coil. Plug in your spare big wire, attach small jumper wire to the empty terminal, turn on ignition. Hold tip of big secondary wire about 1/4 inch from a head stud, ground small wire to a stud then lift it off. Every time you ground and release small wire you should get a fat, yellow spark from secondary to head. If you get good spark...power supply and coil are likely good. No spark or feeble looking blue spark, trouble is in coil or its electrical supply. So if the spark is good, time to closely examine distributor and especially every thing you worked on. Do the test, get the result, then we can figgerout next step.
Ok Bruce....I bought new points and will set them at .016, and will test the coil tonight for spark. Thanks.....be back with u later!
Ok, first I removed the distributor and put the new points in. I tried it and she fired up and ran for 30 seconds or so. Now I have intermittent spark at the plugs. what else should I look for. Cap and rotor seem ok, as do the wires. I didnt have a spare plug wire to test the coil, will do that tomorrow.
Seriously consider pulling the distributor out and sending it to Bubba's for rebuild. He has a cult following on the Ford Barn, and his shop will get it setup and ready to run. If there is any question about the integrity of the distributor and the point gap then you are probably going to have to deal with lots of frustration, part swapping, and headaches. http://www.lindertech.com/bhrs/flathead_crab.htm As you learn the folks that know what they are talking about, like Bruce, then i would suggest following the troubleshooting steps they offer in the order they suggest. It will save time and money, trust me!
theres a couple trouble spots in the flathead distributor that ive had issues with, first is the little spring loaded contact button that the wire attatches too, second is where the spring part of the points attatch to with the screw, the inulation is supose to go bad and ground out. we had problems with the first on a flathead i put in a buddies car, latter we had more ignition problems and i beleive it was the second prob. JEFF
I ditto the Linder recommendation if you can't figure it out. He is reasonable on cost and does a great job.
The terminal is indeed important, not just for continuity and insulation from ground but also because it pushes hard on the point plate...gaps and timing should be set with this in place (same goes for the coil on '32-41 distributors!) so that installing it does not shift all your settings. You can test a bunch of distributor electrical functions crudely like so: Make a test light. Get a light socket like a tailight socket, cheap at NAPA if you don't have a spare. Make it a lengthy power lead with alligator clip and also a ground lead with clip. This will be easiest with a setup that has ground wire and not ground through its case... Now attach both leads direct to battery and note brightness of your bulb. Next, hook its power feed to bat and its ground lead to the terminal on distrib, with the wire to coil detached. Turn on ignition and crank...you wan to see bulb going cleanly on and off as engine turns, meaning that points function in at least some way and that nothing is inappropriately grounded, AND you want to see tha bulb is as bright in this role as it was hooked entirely to battery...if it is dim you have a bad ground or other electrical flaw somewhere in there.
I did look into both, and I don't believe thats the issue. I cleaned all that up and made sure there was good contact and that the insulation was good and intact...thanks.
Im going to order new plug wires, cap and rotor. The coil is definately firing, and I have regapped the points many times and checked every square inch of the distributor.
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