Need Help----Trying to fire the new Roadster

bogdonj

bogdonj

Well-known member
Well most of you know that we came into another car where we live...1930 Ford Roadster.. The engine has not been ran for 5 years.. we went ahead and cleaned everything up but are stuck at a problem. We seem to have electricity to the cut out, black box, dist but when we try and get a spark out of the high tension wire against the head nut we have no luck????... seems the starter wants to turn the engine over slower than we are use too.. could this have any effect on why we don't have a spark coming from the high tension?

We switched out the coil for one in the 31 Tudor but only have the same results?????

any help would be great!!!


Justin
 
it can draw an excessive amount of power from the battery if you dont have good connections, especially the grounds, start there, you can also take the dist cap off, make sure the points are closed, turn key on, hold one spark plug wire close to the head and use a screw driver to open and close the points, you should get a spark if every thing is wired right to the coil and dist, or you can use an extra 12 volt battery to power a modern induction timing lite, hook the battery leads to the 12v battery, the induction lead to the spark plug wire and open and close the points, if every thing is right the timing lite will flashtiming lites dont care how its hooked up as long as it has the right voltage
 
Did you check the point setting and make sure they are good, also check the timing, and while your at it check the pulgs for correct gap and clean. Good luck.
 
Fred K-OR said:
Did you check the point setting and make sure they are good, also check the timing, and while your at it check the pulgs for correct gap and clean. Good luck.
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point are set but haven't checked timing yet.... even if timing or plug gap was way off that wouldn't stop power to the high tension wire would it? I need to get power cracking out of the wire against the head nut....???????
 
Make sure that the points are not grounded when they are open. This happened to my Son-in Law's car and we found it with a multi-meter. The stationary point should read to ground all the time, but the movable point should only read to ground when the points are closed.
 
even though the point gap is set file the contacts they get corroded from sitting. very common problem on all cars that have sat for extended periods. also get a simple 12 volt test light and make sure you have power at the points when open,, the moveable side that rides the dist cam
 
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As Mitch said, I'd start by cleaning the points. You say you came into another car. Is this your first Model A? The engine doesn't have to crank very fast to start, as long as you have at least 4 to 5 volts at the coil, you should get fire at the plugs.

My bet is dirty points from setting.
 
fordgarage said:
Is that possible? Bad connections don't transfer power, do they?
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Sure they can, since current flows around a wire and not thru it. Especially with stranded wire, corrosion will cause resistance and increase the current draw but will only allow the current to trickle thru the connection.
 
Excessive resistance in any primary electrical system will certainly affect the secondary electrical system. In any vehicle that has sat for any lengthy time I always clean every connection physically possible before putting current thru the system. I have seen many times a standed wire that was corroded under the insulation, away from the connection, more with cloth covered wire, but can happen with any wire.
 
Tom Wesenberg said:
As Mitch said, I'd start by cleaning the points. You say you came into another car. Is this your first Model A? The engine doesn't have to crank very fast to start, as long as you have at least 4 to 5 volts at the coil, you should get fire at the plugs.

My bet is dirty points from setting.
Click to expand...

I recently had the same problem on our '28 roadster. I cleaned the points, the distributor, the cap and the rotor. Started right up.
 
Tom Wesenberg said:
As Mitch said, I'd start by cleaning the points. You say you came into another car. Is this your first Model A? The engine doesn't have to crank very fast to start, as long as you have at least 4 to 5 volts at the coil, you should get fire at the plugs.

My bet is dirty points from setting.
Click to expand...


No we have been around Model A's for awhile.. this is my second car... We cleaned up everything and still can't get power out of the high tension wire.... We checked all the connections for a volt meter and they all range around 6. We took the older dist out and replaced it with another one that we had. Still the same results... replaced all the wiring going to the panels and generator... still the same results... we noticed the amp meter moves abit but when you press the horn it shows a very small charge and not a decrease... We also installed a new ignition cable because the old one was brittle....

could this be cut out related or amp meter related?????




Thanks,

Justin
 
also we got power to the points and it also reads 6 Volts... broke the points and got a good spark out of it.
 
Here is some general advice I give to the "My car won't start" question.

You need 5 things for an engine to run,

Fuel
Air
Compression
Spark
all happening at the right time and right quanity

Here is the general spark check list,


Some possibilities are:
1.Blown or defective fuse or fuse holder
2.Bad connections at ammeter, or ammeter itself (to find out put a jumper wire from one post of the terminal box to the other to take the ammeter out of the circuit temporarily)
3.Bad ignition switch and/or cable, or loose cable connection at switch.
4.Loose or broken wires at bottom of coil
5.Loose or broken wires inside terminal box
6.Loose, bare or broken pigtail wire under distributor plate, or wire grounding to plate or distributor body
7.Points not opening, or point arm grounding to cam due to worn rubbing block
8.Worn electrode in underside of distributor cap
9.Loose or broken high tension wire from coil to cap
10.Condenser burned out or grounding (some condensers are too long and can touch the distributor body inside)
11.Weak coil
12.Rotor not turning due to loose cam screw or bad timing gear
Ok now break out a volt meter (a light bulb can give false readings).
Start at the fuse block, you should have voltage on both sides of the fuse. If you only have voltage on one side, replace the fuse or fuse block.
Now with voltage on both sides of the fuse, move up to the junction box. There should be voltage at both terminals. If voltage is present only on one side the problem is at the ampmeter and you should Jumper the ampmeter for now.
You should have voltage on both sides of the coil. If not, remove the red wire on the coil and check again. If you now have voltage on both sides, you have a problem further on. If the voltage is still only in one side you have a bad coil.
Open the points with a piece of paper and remove the condenser. Turn the key on and you should have voltage at the points. Replace the condenser and you should still have voltage. If voltage is missing, remove the top plate and check for voltage on the bottom plate. Check is the connector from the ignition switch screwed in to far? Do you have voltage on the wire to the upper plate? Is this wire shorting to ground or broken? Are the point closing.
Let us know what you find.
 
High resistance will decrease current flow, not increase it. Thus, you only have a trickle of current, if any at all. Electricity does flow through a wire, not around it. Some experts say electrons only flow along the outer surface of a conductor but are still going through or aliong the wire. What's around the wire is a magnetic field which is only formed by current flowing through the wire. When the flow is interrupted (by a switch, broken wire or high resistance) current flow stops and the magnetic field disappears.
Sometimes you can get the proper voltage meter reading or a test light to glow and still have a bad connection. It is only letting a small amount of current to flow, enough for the light, but when more is needed, the connection opens. I've seen this a lot working on snow plow trucks that see a lot of salt. The salt gets in and corrodes a wire so all those lights on the back are dead, yet a test light will work fine.
 
40 Deluxe said:
Sometimes you can get the proper voltage meter reading or a test light to glow and still have a bad connection. It is only letting a small amount of current to flow, enough for the light, but when more is needed, the connection opens. I've seen this a lot working on snow plow trucks that see a lot of salt. The salt gets in and corrodes a wire so all those lights on the back are dead, yet a test light will work fine.
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Again going back to my aviation days, I remember a mechanic cursing up a storm while working on a wing tip light. I asked what was going on and he told me that the meter showed voltage at the socket, the bulb tested good but it would not light. I told him he had a bad splice somewhere in the wire. Sure enough he came up the the radio shop later and told be he found a bad repair of the wire in the wing.
 
bogdonj said:
No we have been around Model A's for awhile.. this is my second car... We cleaned up everything and still can't get power out of the high tension wire.... We checked all the connections for a volt meter and they all range around 6. We took the older dist out and replaced it with another one that we had. Still the same results... replaced all the wiring going to the panels and generator... still the same results... we noticed the amp meter moves abit but when you press the horn it shows a very small charge and not a decrease... We also installed a new ignition cable because the old one was brittle....

could this be cut out related or amp meter related?????




Thanks,

Justin
Click to expand...

Is the battery fitted correctly? If the ammeter reads charge when you switch something on chances are the battery is fitted wrong way around.
 
Tom Wesenberg said:
Do you mean you opened the points and got a good spark at the POINTS?

Or do you mean you got a good spark at the COIL WIRE?
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Good spark out of the points.... My next step is to test the ampmeter... to over ride the ampmeter can I just alligator clip the 2 ends together for the time being?

Justin
 
leakers said:
Is the battery fitted correctly? If the ammeter reads charge when you switch something on chances are the battery is fitted wrong way around.
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yeah the battery is fitted properly and all the connections cleaned up... even the ground to the frame is all sanded down and exposed to bare metal.
 
To bypass the amp meter and the 2 short wires leading to it, just clip a jumper wire across the two studs or wing nuts that hold the terminal box cover on.

Then to check for generator output just connect a voltmeter, one lead to ground, and the other lead to the terminal box wing nut. You should read just over 6 volts with the engine off, and about 1/2 to 1 volt more running at fast idle.
 
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