Technical Banger electrical help

im having some electrical issues on what seem like it should be so simple. Im hoping someone here has a easy answer for me. initially had a set of worn points and the car didnt want to start, replaced the points and the rotor. when i did this it fired right up and ran for about 5 minutes then cut off and doesn't want to start again. ive tested everything and i have good spark at the points, spark off the coil but nothing to the plugs. the rotor is definitely touching the cap and the gap from the rotor to the terminals in the distributor is like .027
what am i missing?

 

Try the old rotor. May be cracked internally, grounding out the spark directly to the distributor shaft.

 

If the cap has a carbon contact it may be missing.

 

What about the coil wire from coil to disty cap?

 

the carbon contact is there, i can get a good spark from the contact to a headstud. i would think that rules out the contact and the coil wire.

 

I’m going to say bad condenser. I’ve got a couple banger cars and my experience is faulty condensers are a real pain in the ass to diagnose and give inconsistent headaches haha. The 2 most common problems I e had in 25 years of these cars are the armored cable from the ignition to the distributor and condensers

 

Not familiar with these distributors but is it a simple matter to temporarily bypass the condenser to see if that fixes the problem?

 

Check coil wire to cap for corrosion at both ends, especially at dist cap.

 

ive tested the condenser, ill check the coil wire to the cap again when i get home but i can the cap to spark directly to a headbolt if i pull it off the distributor body

 

So spark out of the coil, but not out of the wires?

 

yes, i cant make any sense of it

 

Does the rotor spin?

 

I assume it has a rotor?

 

rotor shorted to the distributor shaft?

 

rotor does spin, i have a half open top cap for setting timing, it cant short to the shaft.

 

I can relate to that! Found mine in my pocket once.

ben

 

The lower plate connection can cause a short to ground. Pretty common issue. Lots of details in this write up.
https://www.fordgarage.com/pages/adistlowerplate.htm

 

With the lower plate issue, you get no spark at all. He's got spark out of the coil. Not much left in the system. Got to be cap or rotor? Yes???