Technical No Spark at the Plug...need help

[Kage]

I am trying to bring an old engine back to life. The guy I got it from said it when from running fine to just not running.

I have replaced the condenser and the points.

(1st pic)I have power to the coil...with my volt meter grounded to the block and touching the positive terminal on the coil I get a reading of 14v..(battery charger is hooked to the battery so I dont run it down)
When I turn the motor over I still have power to the coil...it drops to around 9 or 10 v with the engine turning over.

(2nd pic)Connecting the volt meter to the negative side of the coil and to where the wire connects to the points I get a reading of 0v.

(3rd pic)when I connect my volt meter to the negative side of the coil and to the points them self I get a reading of 14V. but i do not see an arc on the points when the engine is turned over. the points are gaped to .025

Yes the rotor is on.

The spark has to be going somewhere. what else can I do/check?

[HOTRODPRIMER]

If power is not going through the coil I would think you found the problem. HRP

[Kage]

I pulled the dizzy last night. Im going to take it apart and give it a good cleaning and make sure it is not grounded out anywhere.

[Kage]

Originally Posted by HOTRODPRIMER

If power is not going through the coil I would think you found the problem. HRP

you shouldnt have a power reading from the negative side to where it hooks up to the points.
and the the volts are making it thru to the points.

and I have tried 2 other coils. both known to be good.

[Hotrodbuilderny]

Take the negative wire off the coil, take a jumper lead from the negative side of the coil and just tap it to ground, if you have juice on the positive side you will get a spark, if no spark the coil is bad. I posted this while you were responding about the two coils, but try what I said anyway.

[Kage]

Originally Posted by Hotrodbuilderny

Take the negative wire off the coil, take a jumper lead from the negative side of the coil and just tap it to ground, if you have juice on the positive side you will get a spark, if no spark the coil is bad.

Ill double check that when I get home.

[sunbeam]

If the points are closed or there is a short in the wire to the distributor you will have zero volts at the neg. term. at the coil. Take the wire off the coil and check term volts should be 12 if there is look at the wire to the points for a short.

[squirrel]

Measure the voltage on the coil at the negative terminal, as you turn the engine slowly by hand. It should go from zero to 14v as the points open

Does that happen?

[Kage]

Ill check that to. I replaced the negative coil wire as well. but it did not make a difference.

[Gromit]

Does coil -ve pulse or f;icker (test light) when cranking?

Do you get spark from coil lead (to centre of cap)

If yes to both, you either have all bad wires or cap/rotor Is the contact button in the cap still there?

[sunbeam]

If you take the meter probe and open the points with it you should read 12v with the points open zero with them closed.

[volvobrynk]

Hey

Keep things simpel, so you can un-fu*k them, one at the time.
A multimeter is not for this kind of work, thats for complicated stuff!

There are 3terminals on a coil, and thats where you start. Term. 15/battery +, Term. 1/Points and Term. 4/HT lead.
Leave 15 as it is (ign. on), and disconect term. 1.
Then slip a sparkplug in the HT lead, in the end from the cap, and leave it on something grounded.
The put a piece of wire between Term. 1 and the battery minus.

When you connect the wire the the battery, nothing. When you disconect, a spark, then your coil works. No spark, then your coil is toast.

Start like that, then follow the power like that, thru the points. If everything works all the way thru them, check the HT side. And then I bet you, you will find your problem.

[George/Maine]

First off you need a 12 volt coil and if resister is needed see if you have one.
get volt meter pos on batt,neg on pos coil wire key on.what the voltage.If resister should read 3 volt.
next switch leads meter, neg to ground and pos to pos.If battery with no chrarger should be 12 volts so 9 volts to coil.
I,m guess you have no resister.
Check the ends of wire maybe held on by few strands.

[JohnEvans]

Many dist. have a ground wire from points plate to the dist body if loose/broken the circut will not be compleated thru the points. Also on some cars the point wire conection has spacers/insulators on it ,a ground there equals no sparky. And what is the vehicle?

[Kage]

Originally Posted by JohnEvans

Many dist. have a ground wire from points plate to the dist body if loose/broken the circut will not be compleated thru the points. Also on some cars the point wire conection has spacers/insulators on it ,a ground there equals no sparky. And what is the vehicle?

Its a 63 Econoline pickup, 144 inline six

[garcoal]

you grounded the points when you did the tuneup

[Kage]

I GOT SPARK!...it was the points. I got sold a bad set. Put another set in I get this nice blue spark.

I still can't get the engine to fire up. The most I have got it to do is backfire thru the carb.

[exwestracer]

If you pulled the dist. out as you said on post #3, my money is on timing being off or plug wires not installed correctly. Did we ever find out what kind of engine? Don't worry if it's "OT", it has points and you're trying to learn...

[Kage]

Originally Posted by exwestracer

If you pulled the dist. out as you said on post #3, my money is on timing being off or plug wires not installed correctly. Did we ever find out what kind of engine? Don't worry if it's "OT", it has points and you're trying to learn...

Its a small ford inline six 144.

I was having all those problems before I pulled the dizzy.
The problem was a set of bad points (cheap chinease parts). I've got good spark now. But the engine still isn't firing. Just back firing thru the carb

[exwestracer]

Originally Posted by Kage

Its a small ford inline six 144.

I was having all those problems before I pulled the dizzy.
The problem was a set of bad points (cheap chinease parts). I've got good spark now. But the engine still isn't firing. Just back firing thru the carb

Right, if you have spark but you are getting backfires, I would check the timing carefully, and make sure all plug wires are connected to the correct cylinder. Make sure they are wired for the correct dist rotation.