need some real time help with coil/dizzy starting issue (1 Viewer)

[g-man]

driving on the highway and the engine dies. No spark at the #1 plug wire. Towed back home. With the key in the ON position i have grounded a test light lead and the test light shows power to the coil on one post. Switch the test light to the other post (the one that gets signal wire from the dizzy) and it shows steady light/power. Is my coil fried. What next?

Do I need to test the ignitor? and how to do that? The coil is relatively new OE part maybe been driving on it 6 months.

 

[g-man]

so both of the small posts on the coil are hot. I assumed the side that gets the signal from the dizzy would be the ground side and stay ground. Is my coil bad?

 

[g-man]

Switched out to my old coil. Still showing hot to both posts.

 

[cruiserdan]

 

[g-man]

my primary readings were high like 1.2 on my original coil (spare) and 2.2 on my new coil. secondary coil reading are within the range.

 

[g-man]

checked it again with a better multi tester they are both .8 ohms on the primary. thats pretty close to the spec

 

[g-man]

I'll take of the dizzy cap and make sure the rotor is turning next.

 

[g-man]

The coil wire is NOT throwing a spark. Gotta test the ignitor

 

[g-man]

searches are not helping. Can someone post a link showing how to test the ignitor on the coil?

 

[cruiserdan]

 

[cruiserdan]

 

[g-man]

the tests on fig 8-12 and 8-13 check out. so i guess ok for both posts to be hot with the key on.

test on 8-14 and 8-15 shows 0 volts I guess my transistor/ignitor is dead.

 

[g-man]

Thanks C-dan. I posted a wanted ad in the Classifieds. Sucks that I broke down 60 miles from home on my way to Hatteras for a week of fishing. Uhg! $400 flatbed tow bill. Hoping my insurance will cover it. What a day!

 

[OSS]

A dead igniter was always my fear - on some long away trip.
While I never experienced one, those who know who I asked about it said ...

“when the igniter goes - the engine won’t run at all”

From what I could dig up, there’s no good way to test the 2F igniter except to swap in a known working one and see if it fixed the problem (problem solving by throwing parts at it).
Problem is -they’re impossible to find even used.

There is a thread here in mud where a guy swapped in either a GM igniter or a Toyota mini truck igniter and it worked.

 

[cruiserdan]

There is a non-US point type distributor still available. 19100-61010.

 

[g-man]

A dead igniter was always my fear - on some long away trip.
While I never experienced one, those who know who I asked about it said ...

“when the igniter goes - the engine won’t run at all”

From what I could dig up, there’s no good way to test the 2F igniter except to swap in a known working one and see if it fixed the problem (problem solving by throwing parts at it).
Problem is -they’re impossible to find even used.

There is a thread here in mud where a guy swapped in either a GM igniter or a Toyota mini truck igniter and it worked.

I found the thread in the FAQs. It's and option to buy the GM module and find the resistor.

 

[g-man]

There is a non-US point type distributor still available. 19100-61010

It's an option. Not a great one, but yeah in a pinch. and if I had one laying around I could get back on the road.

 

[mike_az]

This is a repost, but I've kept this info both in my rig, and on my phone for years. It's the standard 4 pin gm style available at any parts store along the way. I have one friend running a GM igniter on the 2F. Below is an excerpt of the original post.

A couple weeks ago, my igniter died. One moment, the truck is idling in my driveway, and the next moment...eh...not so much.

Parts:

• One 4-pin GM HEI ignition module
• One 1/4 Watt 1000 Ohm resistor (RadioShack 271-1321)
• Three 1/4" quick connectors
• One 3/16" quick connector
• Two eyelet connectors
• One short piece of wire (6" or so)
• Two 1" machine screws
• Shrink tubing

The ignition module that I used was Part #SSTLX301T, from Rock Auto, which is for a 1985 Chevy K10, but I'm pretty sure that it's a standard part across most of GM's line at that time. Just be sure that it's the four-pin module.


Instructions:

• Remove the old igniter from the truck.
• Remove the plastic bottom case of the igniter.
• Clip the wires (I tried removing the solder, but still couldn't get the connectors to budge).
• Unscrew the old ignition module, and remove it from the case. (See my next post in this thread for a comment about this.)
• Strip back about 1/4" of each wire end to attach to the quick connectors.
• Solder one resistor inline to the end of the yellow wire.
• Attach the other end of the resistor, along with the black wire, to one of the 1/4" quick connectors.
• Attach the brown wire to a 1/4" quick connector.
• Attach the red wire to a 1/4" quick connector.
• Attach the white wire to the 3/16" quick connector.
• Make a ground strap with the length of wire and the two eyelet connectors.
• Drill holes in the top of the igniter housing to match the mounting holes in the new ignition module.
• Apply silicone grease to the bottom of the new ignition module and attach it to the top of the igniter housing with bolts through the holes that you just drilled. One end of the ground strap that you made should be attached to the hole in the ignition module that has the grounding tab.
• Reattach the igniter to the coil, and connect the wires as follows:
  • White wire from distributor goes to W pin.
  • Red wire from distributor goes to G pin.
  • Brown wire goes to B pin. Eyelet end attaches to + terminal on coil.
  • Yellow and black wires go to C pin. Eyelet end attaches to - terminal on coil.
  • Ground strap attaches to any convenient ground point.
  • 
  • 

 

[Spike Strip]

Test your Distributor Signal Generator before buying an Igniter, though having a back up is a good thing. I believe there's a procedure also in the FSM that C Dan shows. It's rare that an Igniter will go bad, but more common for a Signal Generator.

BTW, @Engineer8000 can repair your Igniter (he posted that once )

how do you check dist signal generator?

just swapped a used FJ60 distributor into the 40. After a lot of trouble, I got it running good. It idled for an easy 20 minutes while messing with the timing. After getting everything buttoned down, I took it for a ride. Ran great and all was well. Then at a stoplight it started sputtering...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[g-man]

Test your Distributor Signal Generator before buying an Igniter, though having a back up is a good thing. I believe there's a procedure also in the FSM that C Dan shows. It's rare that an Igniter will go bad, but more common for a Signal Generator.

BTW, @Engineer8000 can repair your Igniter (he posted that once )

how do you check dist signal generator?

just swapped a used FJ60 distributor into the 40. After a lot of trouble, I got it running good. It idled for an easy 20 minutes while messing with the timing. After getting everything buttoned down, I took it for a ride. Ran great and all was well. Then at a stoplight it started sputtering...

forum.ih8mud.com

hmmm??,... this is doubtful. I mean I did the 1.5 v battery (read AA) that tested out at 1.58V and with jumpers that had male spade connectors on the jumpers and plugged that into the plug that runs from the dizzy back to the ignitor...it failed to show voltage. Per the FSM when you do this for (less than 5 sec) and have a multi testor pos. lead on the neg post of the coil and the neg lead of the multi tester on the body of the ignitor... it should be about 5V less than battery.

Also I just recently (april 2022) went through the distributor and adjusted the air gap between the signal generator and the metal tips on the signal rotor on the shaft to within spec. Regreased the breaker plate/bearings etc.

Anyway that thread you posted talks about a pertronix dizzy with a stock ignitor and coil. Nothing about how to test for signal coming from the signal generator. Although this would be good to know how to test. I thought if I put the low voltage test lead on the positive cable and the tester tip on the neg of the coil it would show a flash equal to rpms but seems like both sides of the coil read hot. I don't know how to approach this since the coil is not sending spark to the dizzy.