No fire

[Chuck R.]

with a 1968 conventional breaker point ignition

Well.......... the engine happily rolls over on command now, but now theres absolutley no fire at the plugs.

I checked the distributor and all checks out ok with nothing grounded out.

I thought it might be the old coil, but checking it against a new coil, and the readings are almost identical.

I do have twelve volts at the coil + teminal as well by the way.

I'm sure that I've probably done something goofy that I'm not catching, any ideas?
Any input is appreciated,

Chuck

[Michael W.]

Re: No fire

Check your points gap and condition. Are you getting a reading on your dwell meter?

[Chuck R.]

Re: No fire

Everything is new and properly adjusted.

The rotor turns and the points are opening and closing.

[William C.]

Re: No fire

At the risk of repeating chuck's question, have you checked the distributor during cranking with a dwellmeter? That is a way to insure that the points are actually closing as well as opening. As a stupid question, you say you have 12V at the coil, is the distributor hooked to the other side of the coil? Given 12V at the coil and the distributor spinning on the other side of the coil, you should have "fire on the wire" as the old assembly plant repairman described it one day...(Actually his problem was like yours, no "fire on the wire")

[Kenneth T.]

Re: No fire

May sound dumb, but did you try to take the coil wire from the distrib and place it near a ground to see if you have spark. It will only go if the points opening and closing. Also, I've had this myself with my 71. Do you have the metal shroud around the points? Sometimes you have to back off the screws and move them a little and Volia!

[Joe C.]

Re: No fire

with a 1968 conventional breaker point ignition

Well.......... the engine happily rolls over on command now, but now theres absolutley no fire at the plugs.

I checked the distributor and all checks out ok with nothing grounded out.

I thought it might be the old coil, but checking it against a new coil, and the readings are almost identical.

I do have twelve volts at the coil + teminal as well by the way.

I'm sure that I've probably done something goofy that I'm not catching, any ideas?
Any input is appreciated,

Chuck

Did I miss Chapter One? What did you do previously that I missed? Did it not crank before?

Oh, Jeeeesus, I had to do some digging but did manage to find Chapter One , about 5 pages back in the Thread MainPages.

With your Rube Goldberg setup, I hope that you don't do any damage , and that your wires are routed in some semblance of where they should be.

All you need to fire the engine is a direct 12v. jumper wire directly from batt pos, to the pos coil terminal. If your distributor breaker plate is grounded to the block, which should have continuity to batt neg, your "condenser" is not shorted, your points are CLEAN (check with points file, then clean with carbon tetrachloride, be sure to remove all traces of lint from the points). The distributor breaker plate should be continuous with the dist housing via a black wire on the underside of the breaker plate. This wire sometimes breaks, and might be the culprit. Check it.

Joe

[Duke W.]

Re: No fire

Make sure the breaker plate is grounded. It has a built in ground wire that will eventually break from being flexed by breaker plate movement commanded by the vacuum advance.

This is beginning to become more common as these cars age.

Duke