I finished wiring a fiberglass car with a Rebel 9 + 3 wire harness. Lights, horn, gauge lights, turn signals, hazzards, hi/lo beams, wipers, etc all work. Ford 302 engine cranks over won't run/start. No current/spark at new Pertronix Flame Thrower Distributor/coil . Test light at (-) side of coil stays steady on when cranking engine. Test light does not strobe/flash on-and-off when cranking engine,only stay steady on. No spark at spark plugs. Replaced new coil with another coil I know works. No luck. The battery is grounded to frame. The engine is grounded to frame. What Ford charging & ignition parts need grounding on a fiberglass car? Had to ground the solenoid to crank the engine. Should the voltage regulator, key ignition switch, alternator, distributor also be grounded? Pertronix Flame-Thrower distributor have no third wire for grounding, only a red wire to (+) side of coil, and black wire to (-) side of coil. I have traced every Rebel wire to make sure the system is wired correctly. Triple checked ignition switch and it is wired correctly. My guess is something is not grounded. Have I overlooked grounding something? Bob at Rebel Wire is not available until May 23rd. I have read jillions of posts/threads going back to 2004 searching for a solution to no avail. Help! Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Everything mounted to the engine is grounded through the engine . The voltage regulator might need to be grounded but that shouldn't keep it from starting . The ignition switch shouldn't need a ground unless it's illuminated . I don't believe a coil , if not on the engine , needs to be grounded but you could try that to see what happens . I'd double check the wiring to the distributor . I have a Pertronix conversion module in my Falcon and IIRC they have the wiring diagrams for their products available on their website . It's possible there's something wrong with the distributor .
The Pertronix Flame-thrower and ignitor II coil are brand new. Wish I had another Ford engine to test them on. When I installed the dist for the first time, I brought #1 cyl up on compression/pwr stroke. Checked the two #1 cyl push rods to make sure they easily turned, and had timing mark at 9* advance, installed the distributor with vacuum canister pointed straight ahead, marked base of dizzy where rotor pointed, made the terminal on dizzy cap represent the #1 cyl in the firing order where the rotor pointed. Even if I was off 180*, wouldn't there still be spark at a plug? I'm thinking possibly timing? Back out to the garage.
Had a friend of mine who graduated from CALTECH with a degree in Electrical Engineering look at my distributor. Definetly knows more than I can imagine. He put a volt meter on the (+) side of the coil and the meter read 12.2 volts. He put it on the (-) side of the coil and the meter read 12.2 volts. While cranking the engine the meter read 9.2 volts. The Pertronix Flame Thrower he said was self grounding and the meter read 12.2 volts. He said, the distributor is defective. I'm not totally convinced. I moved the distributor 180* thinking the timing was on the exhaust stroke instead of the compression/power stroke. No luck. So, I left an email with Pertronix about the situation and asked if the ign module is to blame, as my friend suggested. Pertronix followed up with, we received your email and you should be hearing back from us within 48 hours. I read a H.A.M.B. post in my search for a solution and I think a member said he worked for Pertronix...maybe it was HOTRODDON. So, Don if you are reading this, Help please.
is the coil case grounded? It ought to be. There needs to be a return path for the high voltage side of it. Are you not getting spark at all? I don't know if you can check a pertronix with a volt meter. I know you can check points with a volt meter. I like points.
Interesting comments about the fiberglass. I have a fiberglass cobra. It never occurred to me that grounding could be a problem (or any more of a problem) due to the plastic body. Is your frame fiberglass?
Is your coil mounted on the engine? A coil needs to be grounded to the engine. Sometimes the coil mounting bracket doesn't ground through the paint on the coil and you have to twist the coil in the bracket until it makes contact. The voltage reading on the negative side of the coil when cranking could depend on the meter being used. The value should fluctuate between 0 and 12 volts. The meter might give you an RMS (average) reading. You would need a graphing meter to see if the Pertronix is grounding the coil. If the voltage drops while cranking on the negative side, the Pertronix is doing something. Check the positive side of the coil while cranking to see if the voltage is dropping there too. !2.2 volts is low for battery voltage. Most electronics systems won't work if the cranking voltage drops below 10.5 volts.
I forgot to add that anything fastened to the motor is grounded, you need to ground anything that isn't mounted to the motor. The ignition switch shouldn't need to be grounded.
The coil had a thick coat of paint. I sanded the paint off the bottom half of the coil. I sanded where the coil mounting bracket bolts to the block. There is no spark at all, when the engine is cranked. The test light does not blink...stays steady on. I'm thinking it must be the distributor, which has no history because I just got it from Summit Racing with matching coil. I'm interested in what Pertronix has to say. $280.00 in limbo.
The Jalopy Journal
