73 240 No spark

[Shawninvancouver]

I do get a spark.  I have a spark plug tester hooked up and it lites up. Also had a few backfires.  So it’s definitely getting spark.  Now it’s just figuring out firing order on dizzy. Or the carbs could be so glued you will need to take them out and fully clean them.  

Edited May 9 by Shawninvancouver

[w3wilkes]

1 hour ago, Shawninvancouver said:

I do get a spark.  I have a spark plug tester hooked up and it lites up. Also had a few backfires.  So it’s definitely getting spark.  Now it’s just figuring out firing order on dizzy. Or the carbs could be so glued you will need to take them out and fully clean them.  

Drop this thread and move to your new thread regarding dizzy and firing order.

[Terrapin Z]

10 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

What does the winner get? 

WOOO HOOO!!! Congrats!!!    

[Captain Obvious]

2 hours ago, Terrapin Z said:

WOOO HOOO!!! Congrats!!!    

HAHAHAHAHA!!! Perfect!  

[Captain Obvious]

11 hours ago, 240dkw said:

you will not get a spark while cranking the way you have it wired.

You need to wire it with the powered b/w on one side of the ballast resistor and the g/w wire on the other side of the resistor and then the jumper from the g/w terminal to the coil +.

That all depends on the internal design of the ignition switch. Some of them are designed such that the power on the ON terminal drops out when you rotate the key to the START position, and some of them keep the ON terminal hot even when the key is in the START position.

It's clear (from the behavior of the car in question) that he has a switch that does not drop out the ON connection, but in fact, keeps that connection hot even when the key is rotated to the START position.

Depends on the car year and whether the switch is factory or has been replaced by aftermarket at some time in the past, etc.

[Zed Head]

12 hours ago, Shawninvancouver said:

a - I bought new points. And put them in. 

I then figured out the wire was dead between the connecter on the distributor to the points. It’s a little old wire. It’s tiny. I put a new wire in and checked for continuity

another sidenote, I did this by bypassing the tack and not using the green and white and one of the black whites. I only used the one black white that was hot on run and put that to the resistor then from the resistor to the positive on the coil and that’s why I finally got the spark. 

In Post #15 on the second page you said that you tried "3 distributors".  Seems unlikely that all 3 would have bad points and/or a "dead wire".

I think that the "hot wire", the sidenote, was probably the solution.  Just posting for the record.  

[Captain Obvious]

18 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

In Post #15 on the second page you said that you tried "3 distributors".  Seems unlikely that all 3 would have bad points and/or a "dead wire".

I'll go out on a limb and say they didn't, just the last one. The other two probably worked fine, but we spent ten pages trying to solve multiple problems at the same time instead of breaking it into simpler, easier to diagnose parts.

Back when the other distributers were in there, the coil wasn't getting power like it should have. So no spark, but because of problems upstream, not the distributer. Then by the time we finally hotwired the thing, we had installed a bad distributer.

That's my read.

[Shawninvancouver]

Hey guys I’m just glad I got spark. FYI the 3 distributors were all old crappy things. All the wires in those were frayed dead things. The one with the red wire a guy just grabbed an old piece of wire and tried to use that. If did not even have the metal slotted ends on it.  All the points on all the dizzys were white and corroded.  The car sat outside for 10-15 years.   All the condensers were rusted to $^!#.  If I would have just checked for continuity from the prong the neg wire goes to on outside of dizzy to the points and seen I was even getting a connection that far I would have solved this way faster. Trust me. I told my pal if we got a new electronic dizzy it would work right away.  And probably would have.  My advice to anyone with points dizzy. Get rid of it and throw in an electronic one and all will be fine. 

[Zed Head]

13 hours ago, Shawninvancouver said:

Now it’s just figuring out firing order on dizzy. Or the carbs could be so glued you will need to take them out and fully clean them.  

 

48 minutes ago, Shawninvancouver said:

I told my pal if we got a new electronic dizzy it would work right away.  And probably would have.

Unlikely.  No offense intended.  Electrical connections, firing order, and timing apply to electronic distributors too.

 

[Yarb]

Points/Condenser is the simplest ignition system ever. Frequent maintenance is what took them away from the industry. Easiest system to debug.

[240dkw]

4 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

That all depends on the internal design of the ignition switch. Some of them are designed such that the power on the ON terminal drops out when you rotate the key to the START position, and some of them keep the ON terminal hot even when the key is in the START position.

It's clear (from the behavior of the car in question) that he has a switch that does not drop out the ON connection, but in fact, keeps that connection hot even when the key is rotated to the START position.

Depends on the car year and whether the switch is factory or has been replaced by aftermarket at some time in the past, etc.

Interesting, I did not know that some switches did that. But still if it is wired correctly you would have 12 volts at the coil while starting rather then the 8 volts through the ballast.

[Terrapin Z]

7 hours ago, Shawninvancouver said:

 If I would have just checked for continuity from the prong the neg wire goes to on outside of dizzy to the points and seen I was even getting a connection that far I would have solved this way faster. 

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