No fire

J

jerry shook

Well-known member
My 51 ford truck with the original flathead. There is no fire from switch to coil I have checked the switch all looks good. Any suggestion on what to check.
 
If there is power to the switch but nothing out of it, then it about has to be the switch. Take it apart and clean the contact points.
 
I check the switch through in on position with an ohms meter. If that's good, check the wire from the switch to the coil. What kind of shape is your wiring in? If it still has the old cloth covered wire then it may be pretty tatty if its original.

The power for the switch comes from a circuit breaker under the panel and they can go bad. VanPelt Sales has wiring diagrams that should help you. The ignition switch controls instruments and radio (if so equipped) on the accessory setting and ignition + instruments in the run position. Whether you can still see the colors or not depends on the condition or origin of the wiring connected there. Lights are all controlled from their own separate switches.
 
rotorwrench said:
The power for the switch comes from a circuit breaker under the panel and they can go bad. VanPelt Sales has wiring diagrams that should help you. The ignition switch controls instruments and radio (if so equipped) on the accessory setting and ignition + instruments in the run position. Whether you can still see the colors or not depends on the condition or origin of the wiring connected there. Lights are all controlled from their own separate switches.
Click to expand...

Maybe this is just a wording problem, but the power to the ignition switch does not come from a circuit breaker. Only the light circuits are on the circuit breakers. The ignition switch is always hot (as are the lights for that matter) and gets it's power from a terminal on the circuit breaker panel that connects to the circuit breaker, but does not connect through the circuit breaker. A good or bad circuit breaker should not have any effect on the ignition switch.
 
I second rotorwrenchs' sugestion to check the wiring. I had a break in the wire from the resistor to the coil in my 47.
 
I wasn't actually referring to a connection through a circuit breakers as much as I was referring to the location of the vehicle's power buss which is connected to the circuit breaker panel. The buss is usually powered from the starter relay with a detour through the amp meter before it gets to the breaker panel. Ford liked to use large yellow wires for the buss power. A person needs a diagram specific to the model of vehicle to ID where wires actually connect.

This is for 48 & 49 trucks but i don't know how it compares to the 51 trucks. It should be similar anyway.
http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/...cs/Flathead_Electrical_wiring1948-49truck.jpg
 
Here is the 51-52 diagram.
 

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  • 51-52 F1 Truck Wiring.jpg
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Some testers have a sharp point were you can prob the wires to see were the power starts and stops ,If you haven't got that get into the wife's sowing box and a pin bulb and wire will do it .
 
I cleaned the switch, an now have fire to the coil on the negative side. The positive side with points open. It cranked for 2 seconds an stoped now just spends. What can I check now.
 
Did you clean the battery terminals and the ground connections? Also are the battery cables, grounds and cable to the starter the correct size? The cables available in the auto parts shops are not the correct size for a 6v system. If all of that is in good shape it may be the Bendix unit itself.
 
The battery is good the eng turns over good. After putting in a distributor it won’t start. There is fire at the points.
 
Will a plug wire give a blue/white spark to ground? Should jump half an inch.
An orange spark that will only jump a quarter inch may not be hot enough to fire a spark plug under compression. Such a weak spark could be coil or condenser.
 
After all this I found the problem. I bought a rebuilt distributor an the nut holding the primary an condenser wire was loose, tightened them an now have spark on points. Thanks for all the help.
 
I though ever thing was good the truck will crank an idle, give it gas an it just spudders moving the timing don’t help. I have checked points,plugs and carburetor flustered.
 
If points are bad then the condenser is what caused it. The coil may be at fault but you may have a fuel delivery problem if it's has good spark.
 
Jerry, it gets confusing when multiple problems occur at the same time. Try one thing at a time, make corrections on one system at a time.


It does sound like your carb may be part of the issue: You have 3 separate fuel delivery systems in your carb. It sounds like the only system that is functional at the moment is the idle system.



If you messed with the distributor's advance, that may have complicated matters also.
 
Let me start from the beginning the truck was running great no problems. I stoped to talk to my neighbor after 5 minutes the eng stopped running. All it did was spin no fire. I had removed the points an put a electronic chip in the distributor. Had been for a long time an did great. My first though was the chip. I put the points an condenser back in. Could not get fire to the coil from the ignition switch so I cleaned the switch an had fire, now I had bough a new rebuilted distributor got # 1 at top an installed the wires from the condenser an points were loose after tightening it will start an idle good when giving gas it sputters an spits back through carb an pops at the tailpipe. Hope this helps, thanks for your understanding.
 
All 8A's I have ever seen that were wired correctly had #1 at the bottom (6 o'clock). You may be 180 degrees out. But than it probably wouldn't run. You better check your spark plug wires.
 
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