Hey guys, I just picked up a 58 chevy pickup to fiddle with and flip. She needs alot but whats here seems rather solid and it hasnt been fiddled with a whole bunch.. Now, when I picked it up it would crank great but just wouldnt start. So I brought it home and realized I wasnt getting spark at the plugs, trace back and nothing at the cap! Trace back and NOTHING AT THE POINTS!!!............ But the coil tested good. However they had run the wire directly to the coil, skipping the ballast resistor. But I figured it would at least run okay like that, so I rubbed around trying to figure out if the distributor had good ground with a test light and while cranking it fired up on me! All the sudden it runs fine... course it just died. This is the second time Ive run into this, last time it was a 5o something John Deere.. Whats going on, or faulty that would cause this? A photo for your troubles 58 by Webster Burch, on Flickr Also, if any of you reading this have a bed, a seat, or some good doors Id be in the market.. not sure what Ill do for wheels...
Start with cleaning and adjusting the points to spec. Might think about replacing the condenser as well. 6cy or V8?
1958 Chevrolet is a 12v system. All points run 6v. The ballast resistor is designed to drop the voltage going to the points to 6v. The ignition circuit has a "start" circuit and a "run" circuit. At startup (in order to get a hotter spark) the ballast resistor is bypassed and 12v go to the points. When in the "run" circuit power to the points goes through the ballast resistor which makes the points see 6v. A 6v ignition system will work with 12v, but the points will eventually burn out. Also the condenser will eventually burn out. I would trace the wires to the ignition switch to see how the distributor is wired (on the start or run circuit).
Awesome thanks guys, I read exactly what you said dmarv in an old "motor" manual right after I posted that question. The dist. only has one wire going to it and it runs directly from a toggle switch, the ballast resistor is on the firewall but nothing is hooked to it. Im thinking Ill rewire it all as it should be and go from there. And I forgot to mention that all the ignition components were in fact new when I picked it up and I reset the points just as a precaution. It appears the last owner had the same issue and gave up on it. Any ideas on how to wire up a circuit with a toggle so that once its running the wire going through the ballast is used instead of the direct 12v wire? (on a keyed ignition car Id just run it through the starter switch but since my truck has the foot starter..)
Or you could replace your coil with a non-resistor 12volt coil. That way you don't have to goof around with a ballast resistor. I have the same set-up on an early Chevy 6 with the foot starter and it works fine,
Here's some info from the Hot Rod Technical Library series of books that I posted some months ago. Well written and illustrated and gives a good walk-thru of older, traditional ignition systems. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/hot-rod-technical-library-basic-ignition-systems.983424/
There should be a small terminal on the starter that is for feeding 12v to the positive terminal on the coil to bypass the ballast resistor while starting.
The Jalopy Journal
