power to coil , put a new coil in and coil gets voltage when key is turned to start car position... but nothing getting past the distributor... what should i look at in the dizzy? can you look at wires to coil.. looks like its wired correctly.. do points look ok? does the distributor look like toast?

11 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

Run a jumper wire from that front end of the ballast  directly to that "+" battery terminal.

Oh, and I'm sure you know this already, but when you're done testing, make sure you disconnect the jumper wire.   

On 4/28/2024 at 10:32 AM, Shawninvancouver said:

I do get power to the coil.  Both pos and neg have power.  

I was going to suggest a jumper wire to the coil.  But, the above.

With the cut wires, but still getting power to the coil with the key on, it seems like somebody has already bypassed the stock setup.

Just saying...we can only work with the information relayed to us.

Yup. I'm just trying to simplify the problem and try to figure out where to focus future investigative efforts.

No such thing as a dumb question when you don’t have all the history.

Yes. Thanks guys. I know I don’t have all the answers and have been doing a hit and miss attempt to get her going. I don’t know the history of the car or why it sat for 14 years.  Probably because some hack mechanic tried to hook it up his way and snipped a few needed wires. I will try tomorrow with the proper wire diagram and see what happens.  Fingers crossed. 

If you weren't 3000 miles away, I'd come help!    

After another attempt to get spark it has not worked.  I have clearly followed instructions on how to wire the coil and still no spark. ( I tested for spark by holding the center plug wire coming from coil to engine block )

Here is how the coil was wired.

1.       Green and white to one end of resistor ( this wire did get power on start position when tested )

2.       Black and white  that got power in on position to other end of resistor .

3.       Black and white that got no power to resistor with green white.

4.       Wire from resistor with green/wht  and black white to Coil +

This should have worked as all diagrams show this set up.

Once again am I missing something here??  The only other note I can mention is I saw the video on how to wire the coil and the green/wht and one of the black/wht should create a complete circuit  - to figure out which black/wht go where  - which I did not get.  The video also showed another way to fugure that out which was to find the one with voltage. That’s how I figured out which black/wht went where.. still no spark.

I assume any car battery should work as I don’t have a spec battery. I have  battery from another type of car but it is cranking the starter motor, so I assume that would still make spark…  I tried looking under the tach but you cant see anything under there..  any other ideas??

i even tried bypassing resistor to test  - still nothing...

something is wrong in the yellow circle area.. as only green.wt goes to resistor..  i have now followed those instructions and possibly wrong..please clairify the correct wiring..

Edited May 2, 2024May 2 by Shawninvancouver

any ideas??  i think the black wt i have  going to resistor with the green/wt should just go straight to the + on coil,,   is that correct???

The way you've got them stacked, it shouldn't matter.

Post a picture of the starter connections and where they go.

Also the ground at the firewall near the battery

Hi. I don’t have a photo of the starter. But I know it’s pos from battery to starter motor and neg from battery to ground on engine block.  How does the starter fit into this ? And it’s the “ stack” of wires on resistor totally wrong???

also no photo of ground at firewall.  

Ohh photo of starter.  If you can zoom up on it. 

I am wondering if the distributor is grounding