still no fire in the hole

[Michael F.]

new ballast and coil but still no fire to plugs, funny had it few days ago. dist, TDC etc. perfect, suggested to me a bad condenser could cause a no spark situation-could this happen? or the black wire out of the dist to coil neg. what is best way to check the wire?? had one of these go bad years ago on a 67 pontiac and was found by an oldtimer mechanic and had one rub through on a 67 yellow 327 coupe I had in 79 but don't see any rubs on my car now.

[Terry D.]

Re: still no fire in the hole

Yes, a condenser can cause the problem you are having. If that doesn't do it replace wire. Always start with the simple things first.

[Terry D.]

Re: still no fire in the hole

An easy, though temporary fix for bad ballast resister is to take a number two pencil and wrap a wire around it from end to end and use it in place of firewall ballast resister, it will get you home! As they say "Been there done that" Many ions ago, while in college I was stranded in my 62 on a Sunday night leaving my girlfriends house, called my father, told him car would only stay running with key in start position. He shows up twenty minutes later with some wire and a pencil. Made me wrap the wire around the pencil and placed it on the resistor. Didn't run great but got me home.

[Duke W.]

Re: still no fire in the hole

With the ignition switch ON you should see voltage at the coil + terminal. If no voltage the problem could be the ignition switch or cowl cowl electrical connector.

Also check that the breaker plate is grounded. There is a ground wire from the bottom of the breaker plate to a vacuum advance mounting screw. It will work harden and break in time. NAPA has a repair kit for a couple of bucks that can be installed without disturbing the distributor. I stated a thread on this subject a couple of years ago. It should be easy to find with a search under my name.

Duke

[Steve G.]

Re: still no fire in the hole

I use a 12 volt test light and go to both sides of the coil. On the + side, the test light should glow. Crank it over while checking to ensure you don't lose power. Now move it to the - side. When the circuit is closed, (points closed) the light should be off, when the circuit opens, the light should come on.

So checking from the - side, cranking it over, the light should be flashing on and off as it cranks.

If the light is on and stays on, you have an open circuit. Lift the cap off and touch the point of your test light to the moving arm of the point set only. Light on, you have continuity right up to the contact. Touch the tester to the fixed side of the points with the points now closed. Light stays on, ground wire to breaker plate is at fault. Light off on the fixed side, but on at the moving side, fault is high resistance across the points.

If the light does not come on at the coil at all, the circuit is grounded. Go right to the points and using the probe on the tester, touching the moving contact only, open the points. If the light comes on, the points are not opening. Either weren't adjusted or were installed with inadequate lube and wore the rubbing block off. If opening the points with the probe doesn't turn the light on, disconnect the primary wire from the points and separate from the condenser lead wire(non uniset points) and check for current at the end of the wire. Test light on, shorted condenser or point connection area. Still doesn't light go back to the coil and disconnect - wire from the coil and check right at coil terminal. Power on the + side but nothing on the - side with - wire disconnected, open circuit inside the coil.

In about 99.9 % of the cases you will have identified the problem. This took longer to type than it takes to do. It's a very quick but accurate test procedure.

There is still a chance of an open or under capacity condenser. This would be a very rare occurance, but if it passed all these tests and still no spark, I would then suspect the cond.

To check the coil ht wire you use an ohmeter. For carbon core wires there is a spec for ohms reading per inch of wire length, but I can't remember it at the moment. I'm sure Google knows it.

Steve

[Michael F.]

Re: still no fire in the hole

thanks all, will do all the checks next week, warmer then, but have to do some family things until monday, I will report back.

[Georges C.]

Re: still no fire in the hole

Have seen - just recently - a bad condenser out of the box with the installation of new points. - Simple inexpensive check.