Have an on going issue with the ignition power lately. Beginning of the year, I had no power to ignition circuit. Had to move the car so I placed a jumper from the positive side of the battery to the positive side of the coil to start the engine. Important... when this condition existed I had power to other circuits on the vehicle. After moving the car on the jumper wire, I found my ignition circuit began to work again. Drove it for a month or two no problems. Then it started doing it again yesterday. I later found that temporarily using the jumper turns my ignition circuit back on and the ignition works properly for a while. Now this problem ..... I just don’t understand. Any ideas?? FYI this coupes wiring was installed 20 yrs ago with no ignition issues.
Start at the coil and start tracing the wiring back until you find the break/bad connection/failed part... No easy magic fix...
Yep. Just need a group hug Before I turn myself upside down under the dash. Just need to catch it in the short on position before I move something and turn the short off.
Are you running a resistor in the coil + circuit? Have you cleaned the points recently? It does seem you have an occasional ‘open’ in the ign side of the circuit. Next time it happens, maybe start at the points and work back from there if there is no current available at that terminal? Ray
I had a similar problem with a '65 F100. It would crank and start fine. Then it would just crank and not start. Then it would crank and start fine. I cleaned the coil wires. Then I opened the cap. Sometimes the points would "pop" when I cranked it. Sometimes the points would not "pop" when I cranked it. It turns out the coil wire connector was worn. The copper wire inside the insulation was broken right at the connector. It was positional. Sometimes it would make a circuit in the right position. On other times it would lose the circuit. Check those connections at the coil, distributor and the solenoid. I would check the coil wires first as adding the jumper may have put it back into position and it's taken this long for it move and lose the circuit.
If you have a proper condenser in good condition the points do not "pop" when they open as they are not supposed to as the condenser absorbs the voltage and takes it to ground when the points open. The "I don't see a spark at the points when I crank it over" is total bullshit. If you see a spark, that is when you have a problem. Car runs after you connect a jumper wire to the coil. I'd be taking the connection off the coil, check the wire terminal super close and clean the post and clean the top of the coil until it was spotless. Then as Hnstray said, check every connection and every inch of the ignition wire from the switch to the coil and I'd check the primary power connections to boot. One of my OT trucks would quit running down the road and it loved quitting at 03:30 on the way to work in the rain. Had a slide terminal in a spot that required a special application terminal with a catch on it. It's usually that little crap that beats your butt.
Could you introduce a load, clip a light on at the coil wire or something, in an attempt to induce a failure, rather than waiting or driving around until it fails? Is your ignition on the same terminal at the switch as the other working circuits?
First thing you should do when looking for a short circuit is disconnect the ground strap. Make up a new ground strap using an old headlight plug and some alligator clips. If you ever short circuit the wiring to ground the bulb glows [instead of the wiring melting] If your wiring is already shorting to ground [with coil disconnected] this will glow. Start disconnecting wires until the light goes out. Now my guess........ It is your ignition switch! or power going to the ignition switch. Some switches will have continuity from the accessory fuse box all the way back to the ignition coil. And the starter circuit is bridged inside the switch. This means you can jump the ignition [at the coil] and use the key to crank it But you cant switch it off because of the jumper wire On a 57 Chevy , I can jump the ignition at the fuse box because of this continuity [from the interior light circuit over to the switched circuit side]
Thank you everyone for sharing your experience with this issue. Yesterday spent some time just moving around wires to see if it would kick the circuit back on. No luck. In answering the question “are other circuits directly connected to the ignition switch” the answer is...my starter and headlights operate without the switch being turned on. Funny thing now that I think about it. After visiting my kids this past week when this happened for the first time in a month..... My daughter seen I had left the lights on and flipped the ignition switch to ON by mistake. I will get into my coil, coil wire, points and condenser next. PJ
Is the battery discharging? Which is a short circuit to ground. Or is it just dead ? Which is a broken connection Is the starter and headlights connected off the main feed on the back of the ignition switch? This is a common method where a main feed comes off the starter solenoid to the switch, then another wire is fed off this terminal to the "live" side of the fuse box. The headlights, starter, interior lights are from this. Sometimes it's the other way around. Where the live feed goes from the solenoid to the fuse box, then to the ignition, headlights etc.
The battery is never dead. Always power to the other circuits when the ignition is dead. Didn’t check the discharge but I ran the car with the jumper in place for an hour and stil had good battery. The solenoid gets its power from the fuse box. This has a grounded push button switch. The headlights feed directly from the fuse box. I haven’t looked into the coil/distributor issues yet. The darn thing started working perfectly again.
The vacuum advance has broken the wire that feeds the points. As the advance moves the point plate it moves the wire so it sometimes not making contact
^^^^^^^ I had that happen on a 292 in my '64 pickup and it took a week of evenings after work to find it. This was before all of this information could be shared in the internet.
With all this additions information, I’d start at the ignition switch. That’s sorta the brains of this operation. Then you’d want to see if the ignition switch is providing coil hot in both run and start position.
Next time it won't start, a test light from the coil to ground (with the ignition on) will confirm whether it is power to the coil problem. Also probe the points with a test light (with the points open) to test that wire
A Test light on the -side of coil should/must flash when cranking. The + side is Just hot all the time ,,, but the - side is the smart one. I got a screaming deal on a Grumman step van because it wouldn’t start. The outfit I got it from had it towed to and from 3 different shops, and had a mobile mechanic come out. The bills were outrageous when totaled up. After valiant efforts to fix it, then setting for too long it became an source of Aggravation. The previous owner was watching us put in a battery and kept insisting it’s not going to run. Popped the dog house and turned the key, crank but no start, there was no spark. Test light and there’s power to the coil. Switched leads and no flashing on the negative side. Popped the cap and it was full of shiny new stuff. With no flash the problem must be something between the - negative post and the hold down clamp of the distributor. That’s all it can be. Yep the wire was broken and easy to temp across the break. Fired right up. The PO was very sad. Checking for the - flash also proves a bunch of things in that intermittent closed ground loop. Saves a bunch of Time.
Finally found the problem. The ignition worked beautiful for a month or two. Saturday went for a cruise out of state and the problem began again. A quick jump to the coil got me home. This time after setting in the garage the whole system went dead. No power anywhere except the starter solenoid. Start tracing wires under the dash and found a bad kill switch at the fuse box. This was a Kwik Wire setup that worked perfectly for twenty years. The kill switch which attaches to the fuse box gave up the ghost. Finally the stars aligned this time. I eliminated the kill switch and bypassed it.
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