flathead ford V8 need help please ballast resistor or coil issues

I tested the volts coming from the coil to the ballast resistor and I have 12.4v coin to the resistor and 12.4 coming out of the resistor. Seems the resistor isn't reducing the voltage. Also I agree with the spares but its such a tight fight in between the radiator and dizzy I barely can get the cap off.

 

Open circuit after the resistor (no current flow so no voltage drop) or a shorted resistor. Remove all wires from the resistor and measure it with the ohms scale on the meter.


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This happen to me a lot.
I use to keep cracking distributor cap or blow coil.
Both cause the same problem, run bad until it die, restart when cold but still run bad...
havent fully fixed my problem tho, next step for me is to relocat the coil

 

Mine won't even restart? I got a new coil today and ordered the rest of the parts so they should be in tomorrow.

 

Crab dizzy right? If so, pull the dizzy takes less room than trying to get the cap off. Should be only two bolts. It will go right back in the same spot, hard to screw it up. g

 

So I finally got to work on the car today but still no luck in getting it to fire? I put a new 12v coil that requires resistor and a new ballast resistor and a new condenser for the dizzy but no fire. I didn't take the dizzy off yet because I will have to take the radiator and grill shell off along with the hood and probably the headlight bar as well. So I am checking all the little thins first. I am confused on the voltage coming out of the coil and maybe some one can assist with helping me understand it.

So I have the ignition coming into the ballast resistor and coming into the ballast resistor I have 11.9v, and going out of the resistor to the positive side of the coil I have 6.35v. Then coming out of the negative side of the coil going to the dizzy it reads 0v till I try to crank the car and it jumps up to 2v? Is this right? Why would it work this way? To me there should be more voltage coming out of the coil than going into it? I figured the ballast resistor was bad in the car before I changed it due to it reading 12v all the way thru it? Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? The car ran great And fired right up originally the way it is wired now?

I hope some one knows how to fix this issue?
Thanks

 

Bump any ideas

 

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What would cause it to jump to 2 volts only

 

Ill bet your points are screwed up from the bad resistor you had. If you look at gmc bubbas posts he has one about the readings you should get out of coils and resistors. Also how to set the points on the crab dizzy. But that may be on the ford barn. You might just want to send it to him.

 

The orginal 6 volt system called for 4 volts coming out of the coil to the points.

 

coil is easy to check. hook 12 v to plus side, each time you hit the ground side it will jump a spark if it is good

 

My initial thoughts are condenser.

 

I checked the condensor and it was good but still put a new one on, also changed to a new 12v coil that requires resistor and installed the new ballast resistor but only getting 2v out of the coil when trying to crank the car?

 

Wait, is it 2V with the motor spinning? That would be points opening and closing, so you are not going to see the true reading as your meter averages the different voltages with points open or closed. I would expect to see 0V on that side of the coil with the points closed and something close to battery voltage with the points open. Remember the ballast resistor only drops voltage when current flows. These readings would be referenced to ground of course. I would not expect to see more than battery voltage on the primary side of the coil. The secondary side of the coil is a different story. Do you have spark on the high voltage side? Time to look there I think.

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I had exactly the same problem once. Didn't listen to the guys on here advice (because I didn't want to pull radiator etc off to pull distributor) and chased my tail replacing parts to avoid the inevitable.

I eventually swalllowed my pride, took the advice and low and behold they were right. I found the aftermarket rotor had cracked and loose in distributor cap. New Ford rotor and fired right up.

Lesson learnt - take the advice and save the heartache!

 

Update

So I did pull the dizzy out and it was the points. The points must have been faulty from the company because there was no reading across one of them. This is the second set of bad points that I had so I decided to go with an electronic dizzy from Bubba. So I got the dizzy and put it on and it fired up on the first turn. All right everything is good, well I drove the car down the road and got about 5 miles it dies again. Seems like it is the same problem. So I check all the wires and it is wired up correctly. I checked the volts and I have 12.06v from the ignition to the ballast resistor and 5.65v coming out of the ballast resistor to the + side of the coil and then when I go to crank the car I have 5.06v coming out of the - side of the coil to the electronic dizzy. I also have 12v goin to the red wire going to the dizzy when the ignition switch is on.

So what am I doing wrong? I am lost on what to do next any help?

 

Just had a pile of trouble trying to start my fresh 59A. Ran great on the stand, but wouldn't fire at all in the car. Tried different coils, wiring direct (bypassing harness) from resistor to coil. Finally, took an old big yellow coil I ran in a circle track car, wired directly to battery, & fired before it made one revolution. Figured out my 2-wire starter solenoid wasn't energizing the "I" terminal. It sends full voltage to start the engine, then when you let go of start button (or key), it switches to get power from resistor. Not sure if that will help you, but it worked for me. Just waiting for rockauto to ship my new solenoid.

 

What is the "I" terminal?

 

What is the "I" terminal?

Really? Obviously, battery cable to one side, starter to other. There are 2 small connections on the front. "S" = start from switch or button that activates the solenoid, & "I" goes to ignition or + side of coil to give you 12V while starting. Also activates at the same time. And, the one that was on the car was labeled that way. There was a small I & S above the wire connections. Some don't have it, & only have one small connector (S) on the front. I'm an expert on nothing, so I assume those would actually have a 12V coil as opposed to a 9V coil & wouldn't need a resistor?

 

Sorry misunderstood you