hey guys i am in desperate need of some help with my Harman Collins dual coil ignition for my 59ab flathead. i got the car running great and then it lost most of its power. after checking all the wiring and cleaning the contacts i suspected a coil, so i disconnected the one on the passenger side that hooks up to the H&C plate and the car ran the same without it hooked up. after re-gaping the points, changing the condensers, trying a different coil and switching the coils from side to side i have come to the conclusion that i need a new plate (im not sure what the part is really called ) even thought it looks like its in good shape. so my question is if anyone has also experienced this same problem and maybe can help point me in the right direction? if anyone knows a source for that piece and other Harman Collins parts it would be a huge help. thanks for your help.
Do you mean the tan ring with the extra coil socket? I just picked up an extra at a swap meet last weekend.
there is a chance the tan ring might not be the problem and there is a short somewhere else, but this is where i think the problem is. i dont understand how it would be possible for it to run on one coil since each coil only runs 4 cylinders, and it seems to be hitting all 8. there must be a short somewhere and my guess is that its somewhere in that ring unless someone has had this same problem and can point me in a different direction.
Something seems Fubar if it is running on all eight with a problem there...mebbe problem is elsewhere. What does your point plate look like?? Does it have Ford points that pivot on posts that are part of plate, or is plate just a flat piece with points that are self contained?? Cam...four peaks or eight? Notice that I'm thinking unmodified Ford bits might be in there in place of the modified ones, and your car is trying to run as a dual point rather than as dual point/dual coil...
it has the self contained points with the felts, and it has a 4 peak cam. I was hoping you would chime in since i figured you would know these things inside and out. I'm hoping the problem is else where and easy to fix since the rings seem to be impossible to find. visually it does not seem anything is wrong with the ring, but i am not sure whats going on underneath the surface of that plastic
OK...old timey testing for plastic secondary parts time!! To see whassa happening, you need to feed spark into the terminals and provide a nearby ground where the spark shouldn't be...traditional way would use a Model T coils as a MSD source, or the KD tool emergency ignition system. Somewhere around here I have a little electric-motored rig that just spins a cam and point plate, firing the attached coil continually that would do the same thing. Or fake it, slower and more awkward...hook up a coil to a battery and have your apprentice touch/remove the ground rapidly producing a shower of sparks and maybe screams....feed sparks into a contact while probing nearby with a small air gap with a grounded wire. Use a secondary wire for both sides sou your eyes don't light up at each spark. This should show up secondary leaks when you find the right place. Also, with mark one eyeball look for ANY mark, maybe just a dot, on the plastic. Think about the routing of your secondary wires too...try fanning them out/rearranging where they are close or overlapping. Primary wiring inside the distributor on these things is a bit crude...make sure there is no funny business going on in there on the primary side, crossover or ground. Don't run large spark plug gaps with funky old plastic...you can easily exceed the dielectric limits.
Have you just used an OHM meter and checked the thing out - at least you'll know if the butter-scotch plate has continuity? I've seen plenty of beat up ones, but never one with a short or problem in this plate. Are you sure it is wired correctly? If it is setup correctly, there is no way that you could run all 8 cylinders on one coil . . . unless somebody fubared the thing and wired the points to do exactly that (which would be possible, but have no clue as to why one would do so). I have a few of these units and am very familiar with them (have a distributor machine as well). I'd love to see some pictures of the unit - where the wires from the points are going, etc.. Let me know - will be glad to help. Dale PM me and we can chat on the phone as well.
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