73 240 No spark

[Terrapin Z]

I know it seems a simple thing but make sure the coil wire is going all the way into the coil. 

The rubber cap can slip down when removing and if you don't reseat it it will not make the connection. 

Pull the cap back and confirm the two metal bits are contacting fully. Then check spark. 

You can also take one of the plug leads and put it in the coil hole again seated, then put a plug in the other end and rest the plug on the head, crank it and check for spark. If you do have a bad coil wire it will give you another confirmation the wires are is or isn't the problem. 

[Shawninvancouver]

Yes.  I just tested coil with a multi meter and it looks like the coil should be fine. Very possible a bad plug lead. Should this coil be ok to use??

[Shawninvancouver]

I think I should also report the tests. 
1. neg battery to engine shows continuity

2. Distributor body to engine shows continuity 

3. Neg side of point to engine shows continuity. 
4.  While my test light was attached to pos battery.  I got light when connected to neg side of points. Points would open and close and got no power on other side of points - is that correct? 
 

5. tried jumping power straight from battery pos to coil pos and tried to start car still no spark doing that. Checked by holding plug wire from middle of coil to frame.  

[Shawninvancouver]

Any thoughts ??

[Captain Obvious]

10 hours ago, Shawninvancouver said:

1. neg battery to engine shows continuity
2. Distributor body to engine shows continuity 
3. Neg side of point to engine shows continuity. 

4.  While my test light was attached to pos battery.  I got light when connected to neg side of points. Points would open and close and got no power on other side of points - is that correct? 

5. tried jumping power straight from battery pos to coil pos and tried to start car still no spark doing that. Checked by holding plug wire from middle of coil to frame.  

I believe I understand your first three tests and they produced the expected results. Nothing surprising there. I wish you would stop using "continuity" and give an "Ohms" reading instead, but I suspect the results would still be favorable.

As for test #4, This part "While my test light was attached to pos battery.  I got light when connected to neg side of points." makes sense to me, and is the desired result. But you kinda lost mo after that. I mean, I know what you mean that the points opened and closed (I assume yo (u were cranking the motor over with the starter), but I don't know what you mean by this part "got no power on other side of points". Where did you have the test light connected, and what did the light do?

And for your test #5, repeat that test, but try holding the coil wire near (but not touching) the ENGINE instead of the frame. I believe it has been previously identified that you may not have proper grounding connection to the body (frame), but you do have a well grounded engine. The valve cover or intake manifold should be a suitable grounded location to use to repeat the test.

[Terrapin Z]

I don't like the look of the red wire attached to the points the metal part there is grounded, the there is a sandwich of fiber washers and the wire should not touch the middle plate. When the points are open there should be no ground contact through the moving part of the points to the terminal through the red wire to where the black wire goes on the flat terminal. 

I still also suggest using a plug wire like off Number 6 with an old plug in it directly from the coil wire hole (well seated). then rest the metal part of the plug against the head. The spark should jump the plug gap when working correctly. 

[Shawninvancouver]

Ok.  I will try to explain this again it’s always confusing.  In my photo. Top of points where I says yes. My test light when hooked to pos battery lit up when touching top part of points.  But fit not light up when touching the other side of the points. When either opened or closed.  So what I’m saying is one side was. Grounded and one side was not. When either opened or closed.  And as for the testing I was under the impression if I just took the lead wire out of the coil. The word that goes from coil to dizzy and unplugged it from dizzy and held the metal tip. The part that would plug into dizzy. And held it again engine i would see a spark from that. I was never using a spark plug with wire from dizzy. Only way I was looking for spark from dizzy was with a spark plug tester pluged into a plug in engine.  

[Shawninvancouver]

With those videos the test light is hook to battery pos. So frame has a good ground. We added a good one.  No sure why coil had no ground with points open or closed.   ??

[Shawninvancouver]

Ohhh. And here is what wires to coil and resister do.  Green white hot on start. Black wt yo resister not on run.  Black white to coil pos no power.  I went over that 10 times and that’s how it should be. Am I missing something. ??

[Terrapin Z]

1 hour ago, Shawninvancouver said:

Ok.  I will try to explain this again it’s always confusing.  In my photo. Top of points where I says yes. My test light when hooked to pos battery lit up when touching top part of points.  But fit not light up when touching the other side of the points. When either opened or closed.  So what I’m saying is one side was. Grounded and one side was not. When either opened or closed.  

I still think the red wire is grounding. I can't tell what you are pointing at for the NO test. The "top part" is the points base and should be ground. The spring part that moves is ground when points are closed and not ground when points are open. This occurs when the dizzy spins the bumps on the rotor to open and close the points. It has to be in the right spot to test that. 

 

And as for the testing I was under the impression if I just took the lead wire out of the coil. The word that goes from coil to dizzy and unplugged it from dizzy and held the metal tip. The part that would plug into dizzy. And held it again engine i would see a spark from that. I was never using a spark plug with wire from dizzy. Only way I was looking for spark from dizzy was with a spark plug tester pluged into a plug in eng

I was suggesting using a different wire to test for spark, but still using the coil output directly. 

Seems we are having verbal discrepancies, So at this point I really think you need to find a local friend that knows point systems. Again I suggest the BC Z Car Club. 

https://www.bczregistry.com

 

[240dkw]

No that is still not correct you should have power on + side of the coil if you have power at the resistor. What is your Ohm reading if you hook up the meter to the g/w wire and the b/w wire at the + on the coil with the wires disconnected from everything?

[Shawninvancouver]

Ok. Before I rattle off more info I need to say the following again. As per captain and Steve j posted. 
 

i have tried the instructions below 20 times and do not get continuity from the green white to either of the black whites   I can go on to say the green white is hot in start position and I can confirm that one of the black white gets power in the run position  and I assumed that was the bw to resistor   But once again no continuity from gw to either bw   Is something wrong there or is that ok??

I also think I know what might be going on here when we originally got the car, the green and black white were snipped there’s a wire going directly from the ballast resistor to the coil that may have been the only hot wire and way to start the car  can someone please tell me what the power should be at the coil positive when the car is in the start position? Here is a photo of the way it was wired when we got the car.

ohhhh power at coil + if power at resistor ?? I can check  

 

posted a picture in another thread recently, but here's the text version of how to do it.

1. Black/white to the coil positive
2. Green/white to one side of the ballast resistor
3. Black/white to the other side of the ballast resistor
4. Black wire from distributor to coil negative

Now you saw that I mentioned black/white twice! How do you tell them apart?

1. Make sure the car is off.
2. Make sure the green/white wire and bothblack/white wires are disconnected in the engine bay.
3. Using a multimeter, measure continuity from the green/white wire to each black/white wire.
4. The black/white wire with continuity to thegreen/white wire goes to coil positive.
5. The other black/white wire goes to the ballastresistor.

Edited May 5 by Shawninvancouver