Howdy all...Tim here...well we are making some progress. Kinda. Spun the motor a few times with a starter I picked up from our flathead faithful Webster friend Thomas. Just for kicks we were gonna see if we could get it to fire with dumpin some gas in...but we ain't getting a spark. Now maybe I'm thick or as they have figured down here "you're just a Yankee" but I can't figure why we aren't getting anything. Now the way we are doing this is: I have the neg of the coil going to the dist. Pos of the coil going to the bat. And we are simply jumping the starter. Should this not work? I know I have done this before on my Packard and my Lincoln. It is a 59 AB block with that football type dist. The coil is not in the stock location but rather a more conventional coil and one of those conversion plates on it. Any thoughts? Any help on this would be great. Tim MBL
Hello Tim. Have you checked if there is a good ground wire to the point plate? Is the coil known to be good? Have you got a good condenser?These things tripped me up many times,but other than that,it seems like you are doing all the right things. Fuel, compression, spark= fire right?? I donn-o ? good luck. anyone else? glenn
The coil should be good and we also tried several coils from around the shop...I don't think all could be bad...The condenser could be bad. I have not checked that as of yet. Would that stop it from sparking all together though? Its a cheap enough thing to replace. As far as the gound the jumper cable is the ground...none of the permanent wiring is done as of yet. Tim MBL
The condenser stores juice for a big fat blue spark,when the points open. It will spark without a condenser,but the spark will be feeble. I had a chevy that did the same thing,and was ready to tear it down for a bad timing chain,when I tried a new 98 cent condenser. It ran fine for 12 years after that!! glenn
I will definately replace it....Any other ideas for this? The dist was one that had been rebuilt so I am thinking the points had been adjusted and such. Tim MBL
if you're running a hotwire to the coil you can burn up the points/condensor pretty fast if you leave it on with the engine not running.
I only have it connected when its cranking to see if there is any spark. Thats all we were checking so far. Tim MBL
Get yourself two lengths of primary wire with alligator clips and do some diagnosing here. Remove coil wires, hook switch side of coil to battery directly, attach other wire to coil's small distributor terminal. Touch this wire to ground post on bat and release while your worst friend holds the big coil wire. If he screams suddenly, coil is ok. Hookitup again and run one of your test wires from distributor housing to ground at bat--distributor could easily have inadequate ground at its mounting.
I'll try all of that. Thanks. I guess it could be a bad dist ground. Maybe some paint got where it shouldn't be. tim MBL
[ QUOTE ] I will definately replace it....Any other ideas for this? The dist was one that had been rebuilt so I am thinking the points had been adjusted and such. Tim MBL [/ QUOTE ] I'm just asking,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Did you****ume the points are set? HRP
I SURE DID!!!!!!So see what you all are dealing with here....an idiot....actually...the dist was one that was rebuilt and in a runnig engine for just a little while. So unless they go out of adjustment by themselves...which wouldn't surprise me; I would****ume they are close enough to create a spark if all other things were ok. Tim MBL
A common failure, which in my experience happens most often on idle distributors, is the lengthy spring snapping in the middle and grounding out the system. Peer in there with a flashlight... My personal Voo Doo approch to prevention is to wax the bare metal flathead springs with a Q Tip and some heavy floor wax. Dunno if it actually works.
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