Spark? problem; or, i swear i am going to kill my truck with me in it.

Something doesn't sound right. The only wire from the coil that gets grounded gets grounded through the points. There should be an insulated feed through where the wire from the minus (-) coil terminal is connected. Inside the distributor is a short wire from the feedthrough up to the points. The + terminal on the coil is connected to battery voltage from the key through the resistor (I'm assuming a 12 volt system) . If it has a resistor there should be another wire from the starter solenoid for a total of 2 wires on the plus terminal. Neither to ground. If it is 6 volt there will be only one wire on the + terminal, that from the key.

http://www.familycar.com/CLASSROOM/ignition.htm

 

Geeeez, doesn't anyone live near this guy?

 

I'm about 2 1/2 hours away but it's tempting to go look anyway.

 

My votes for the coil or a bad ground

 

it's a new coil. i live near him but then who would i talk to if we fixed it.

 

+1- They're pretty much all made offshore anymore- Bad out of the the box is VERY common- Try to find some N.O.S. Delco Remy or Autolite stuff somewhere...

 

I still feel it is in the tune up............as I mentioned previous..

I suppose at worst...............timing chain..

let us know as soon as you get it fixed..

 

this is the best story ive ever seen

 

+1,...on two of my motorcycles.

 

but is it the right coil they made two different ones i hope we find out tomorrow

 

I had a Rambler that checked out in every way your Truck does! It should have run,,,,,but didn't, except once in a while it would for a short time! A mechanic ran a point file through the points,,,,and it ran like a top!

 

General Gow, go back to the beginning of this thread and read carefully.

 

You said:
but, the - wire grounds to it on the side below the cap. the dizzy sits at the front of the engine, the coil at about 10 o'clock, the - wire comes off the coil and touches around 11 o'clock, the + wire goes in to the points at about 9 o'clock.

1-The - (minus) wire should go inside to the points & not ground anywhere.
2-The + wire should end on the + coil post. It should not go inside to the points. There should be no other wire from the + post to anywhere else except possibly the starter solenoid.

There should be nothing from either coil post to any ground. The ground is the points. The - wire only goes in to the points.

 

Every day I rush home to see if General Gow's truck has started, and every night I go to bed feeling his pain, anguish and frustration... It's addicting, I tell you, like a soap opera.

I'm sure somebody has brought it up before, but are you sure that thing didn't jump time?

At this point, General, I'd go back to the very, very basics and be sure that the timing mark, the piston and the distributor rotor all agree about where #1 TDC is located...

Ach...I love a good story!

 

I just did a car the other day that would not Start
it was the Firing Order
Set it up the Right way & it Fired right up & ran Beutiful

 

Yeah first thing i did when i start up my computer this morning at 07.34 go to the Hamb and look if there was any news ... this is realy addicting..

i realy have the feeling you overloocked sompthing.. if you realy did everything then WTF. why isnt running

you still dont get a spark??? did you try a different sparkplug..?

 

Don't clean the spark plugs, put new ones in. Alcohol fouling does exactly what you are describing.

 

I had the same problem with a 40 chev and good ol Jerry came over and found it was missing a small screw that grounded out the dist to the points plate and the damn thing fired right up. I did the same thing as you and chased sh*t down for a week before he found the missing screw.

 

Did you do the spark test I outlined before? If not, remove the distributor cap, pull the center high tension wire out of it.

Leave the spark wire in the center of the coil and place that end close (about a plug gap) to the engine block or other good ground.

Make sure the points have a good ground as mentioned above. The base of them is grounded, not the little arm that moves with the dist. cam. The arm is where the wire from the coil ends up.

Apply +12 V to the coil + post. Go through a resistor if you want but a short period of 12V won't hurt anything.

Use something to open and close the points. You should get a spark off the end of the coil center wire..

 

Dang, if this keeps up we're gonna have to get the General a team of cheerleaders and a beer cart.


Anyway, you may want to take a look at the insulating washers/nylon or fiber grommet where the wire from coil connects to the distributor.

The wire can be on snug like it's supposed to be, but the nut that holds the stud assembly to the body of the distributor can be loose.
That allows the stud assembly to float and ground occasionally.

You may want to look for corrosion while you're checking.
It'll look like the white/green corrosion found on battery terminals.
It'll bleed off some of the voltage and things can get weird and intermittent depending on the humidity etc.

 

General, don't replace parts unless you know they are bad. Start at the battery and follow the circuit, through the switch, coil, points. If you jump here and there you and replace that, you may never find out what it was OR may never be sure you FIXED it. I had a friend's car that made me crazy finding a problem. It turned out to be the insulator where the wire went through the side of the distributor. The car ran, but had an intermittant miss on ALL cylinders. Several other guys had played before I got a chance. Use an ohm meter and check very carefully at every connection. P.S. Not to start a pissing contest, but if it were the timing chain, as has been suggested, it would still have spark. Don't let this kick your ass!!

 

Were do you have power.

 

General, I am so addicted to this thread. I've been cheering you on!!

The only advice I can give you is to go back and read all the posts over with fresh eyes. And start your trouble shooting with the battery voltage, if its not right, or close or down just a bit, then every thing your doing while your freezing your ass off will be the same. Its time to not assume and be completly anal about your work. This kind of thing is what will make you a good trouble shooter. And its about the only thing that ever will.

Dont replace anything unless you have deducted it is bad, (parts changer) the only thing I read and several times and btw from several different people is your battery voltage is down. 2.1 volts per cell and you still dont have that. That will most definatly mess things up for you, did for me.

The only thing that changed from the roll back "start" to the "no start" was "time" right? for the battery to go down and continue corroding or condesation moisture in the cap wires. It was Running. Now you have a basket of new stuff that you now have no absolutle knowledge they are working, adjusted properly. I have gotten new things that dont work more than i like to remember.

If that was me I would beg borrow or steal a fresh battery and a GOOD GOOD multimeter, Start from the beginning. Check every wire for resistance,they can look fine outside and be green and degraded, broken, inside the covering. Remove and clean the connections, plugs, studs, everything. They can be bad and studs broken inside of the nuts.

Good luck brother !!! GO GENERAL-GO GENARAL-GO GENERAL

 

http://www.taunton-ma.gov/Pages/index

OW!!! today its only -4degrees time too start that engine

 

Pull the rotor off, flip it over and make sure it hasn't burnt thru sending your would be sparkles right to ground.