Ingintion Guru's advice #2

[rockfla]

Okay
Have a good battery with 3 strong cells, 6,28V. When I first measured the voltage at the coil after installation it was showing 5.8V. Pulled a spark plug to spin and check for spark.....NO spark. So checked the voltage again at the coil and it was about 2.6v. SO I checked it while the car was spinning over and it jumped to 3.5V. SO......I checked the power at the ballast resister and its 6.07V on the in-side and 6.03V on the outside. Voltage at the coil NOW is 1.7V. Thoughts on next move!!!

 

[corvette8n]

I would check every wire feeding your system, use the ohm meter and make sure everything is "tight and brite". I once had a battery connection that looked ok, but when I pulled on it it came out of the terminal all green and crusty.

 

[JSeery]

You could try a jumper wire around the existing wiring to the coil. Fabricate a wire up with a connector or alligator clip on each end and run it from the ballast resistor to the coil and see what you get. If there is still an issue, you could try moving this jumper wire to the input side of the ballast resistor so you have full battery voltage (assuming the ignition switch and other wiring up to the resistor are ok). With any of this testing do not leave the ignition switch on for very long! Ignition switch ON, test whatever and then OFF.

 

[rockfla]

You could try a jumper wire around the existing wiring to the coil. Fabricate a wire up with a connector or alligator clip on each end and run it from the ballast resistor to the coil and see what you get. If there is still an issue, you could try moving this jumper wire to the input side of the ballast resistor so you have full battery voltage (assuming the ignition switch and other wiring up to the resistor are ok). With any of this testing do not leave the ignition switch on for very long! Ignition switch ON, test whatever and then OFF.

I did run a jumper wire straight from the battery to the coil during one round of spinning "Just" to see IF we would get spark...the first go around I "DID" but when I tried that again NO SPARK. As an aside, I did pull all of the cables and cleaned both end and ALL grounds and cleaned the ends. JSERRY.....I also did a voltage check with the jumper wire straight from the battery and was getting 5.5V I would of thought a straight wire would show 6 or closer than 5.5V??? AND yes cautious about "burning" the coil!!

 

[rockfla]

I would check every wire feeding your system, use the ohm meter and make sure everything is "tight and brite". I once had a battery connection that looked ok, but when I pulled on it it came out of the terminal all green and crusty.

AS to the "resistance" or Ohms, what should I be looking for????

 

[hook00pad]

I had a similar situation a year or so ago with a zero-turn mower. It had 12 volts at the ignition switch, all wiring seemed intact, all connections good and clean, but no spark and no voltage or next to none at the ignition feed. I found that it would run if a 12 volt jumper was attached at the engine end of that feed wire. We (my son and I) discovered a place in that wire which ran under the swing-up seat, had been stretched (but not cut) leaving the insulation intact. Replaced that wire and the thing fired up. The wire inside had been stretched so much there was only one or two strands of that #14 wire remaining. We scratched our heads over that one for a while, changing out switches, relays, fuses, etc. A little funny now, but it wasn't then. Ha ha.

Al Hook

 

[rockfla]

I had a similar situation a year or so ago with a zero-turn mower. It had 12 volts at the ignition switch, all wiring seemed intact, all connections good and clean, but no spark and no voltage or next to none at the ignition feed. I found that it would run if a 12 volt jumper was attached at the engine end of that feed wire. We (my son and I) discovered a place in that wire which ran under the swing-up seat, had been stretched (but not cut) leaving the insulation intact. Replaced that wire and the thing fired up. The wire inside had been stretched so much there was only one or two strands of that #14 wire remaining. We scratched our heads over that one for a while, changing out switches, relays, fuses, etc. A little funny now, but it wasn't then. Ha ha.

Al Hook

Funny, just before getting back on here I was thinking of doing a continuity test of the coil wire from the ignition.

 

[JSeery]

AS to the "resistance" or Ohms, what should I be looking for????

As close to zero as possible. If it doesn't work with a direct jumper, then the problem is most likely in the coil, condenser or distributor itself. What coil do you have, an original or a can type coil, what year engine/ignition is it?

 

[rockfla]

As close to zero as possible. If it doesn't work with a direct jumper, then the problem is most likely in the coil, condenser or distributor itself. What coil do you have, an original or a can type coil, what year engine/ignition is it?

1939 Merc
The coil is a Skip Haney (Ford Coil) redo. I pulled the Dist and cleaned the points the best I could, I tried getting an ohms reading from the resistor/points but wasn't sure what I am looking for there??? SO I have pulled the distributor/coil/condenser and Hoop is "rechecking" the distributor on his Sun machine and "resetting" the points, dwell and vacuum advance for me. I think he is also checking the coil too? Once I get that back I will try again. I will also check the ignition to coil wire tonight to see what reading I get on it. ANY Other suggestions????