No spark, what next??

[DustyFJ]

So frustrating. Little background, my truck is a 74 that had a new 2f installed somewere in the 78-81 range. the truck sat many years before i bought it. it had points with a capacitor on the side of the distributer at that time.

I got busy with personal issues and didn't have the know how to get it running or the time to learn. A friend worked on the truck a year or so ago and the truck has been running well for six or eight months.

About a month ago the truck started backfiring from the tail pipe when I would let off the accelerator. My friend said the valves may need adjusting(head work had been done)

He came over and gave me a hand, valve clearances looked good he said. Then, no spark.

I had been running a replacement coil and a troll hole distributor with electronic ignition. (installed by my friend) Not sure how it happened but a piece of the rotor came apart

Trollhole set me up with a new one (he rocks) and I expected that to fix the problem. It didn't. I found that the red wire with the white sleeve on it had what looked like a bad crimp connector causing 8k ohms resistance between the coil and the electronic ignition inside the distributor. I put a new end on it and it didn't solve the problem. I swapped the new coil out for the one that came with the truck and the truck started right up like a champ, ran it for 10-15 min to charge up the batter and went to bed(it was late on a work night) Then next day it started right up. I went to back out of the driveway, grinder the gears for a split second and it died. now no spark again.

the newer coil ran the truck for 6-8 months the old one ran it for 10-15 min. After some searching on mud I may have more questions than answers. The old coil says right on it "use with external resistor" but the truck never had some of the stuff I see in other peoples posts ignitors and resistors

I probably left out some key pieces of the puzzle but here is one more pic.

 

[DustyFJ]

on the + side of the coil: red goes to the electronic ignition, back/yellow goes to ?ignition??

on the - side of the coil: black goes to black on the electronic ignition

the safed off black/white goes to the starter(?only needed if I am running a resistor??)

 

[DustyFJ]

Not sure it the answer is compatablity between the troll hole dizzy and the coils I'm using??

 

[DougAustinTx]

So, does the coil you are trying to use require an external resistor? If so, you need to put one on. If the points are closed and you leave the key on for any length of time, you will burn out the primary winding in your coil if it needs a resistor and doesn't have one.

 

[DustyFJ]

So, does the coil you are trying to use require an external resistor? If so, you need to put one on. If the points are closed and you leave the key on for any length of time, you will burn out the primary winding in your coil if it needs a resistor and doesn't have one.

I don't have points, the coil in there now clearly says use with external resistor, which is strange since it wasn't on the truck when I bought it. The wiring diagram in the haynes manual seems to show a resistor but of course that is if I have an 1.5f motor with points. I have a 2f with electronic ignition.

Do I need a resistor for electronic ignition?? The way I understand it the resistor is there to protect the coil by lowering the voltage except while cranking(bypass wire) seems like yes???? Its not clear it the new coil I had been running was internally resistored. it that the answer?? I need to buy an internally resisotred coil???

 

[Pin_Head]

Do I need a resistor for electronic ignition?? The way I understand it the resistor is there to protect the coil by lowering the voltage except while cranking(bypass wire) seems like yes???? Its not clear it the new coil I had been running was internally resistored. it that the answer?? I need to buy an internally resisotred coil???

Whether you need a resistor or not depends only on what type of coil you choose to run.

There are two general types of coils: 6 volt and 12 volt.

If you use a 6 volt coil to improve starting under extreme cold conditions when the battery voltage drops to 6 volts, then you need a ballast resistor to drop the voltage to 6 V after the engine starts.

If you use a 12 volt coil, no ballast resistor is used. It is not like there is a resistor inside. Instead there are twice the number of turns of a smaller gauge wire which makes the internal resistance of the 12V coil approximately twice that of the 6V coil.

You can use an ignitor with a 6V or 12V coil, but the ignitor will need 12V to run, so it has to connect on the key side of the ballast resistor and not the coil side.

 

[DustyFJ]

Whether you need a resistor or not depends only on what type of coil you choose to run.

There are two general types of coils: 6 volt and 12 volt.

If you use a 6 volt coil to improve starting under extreme cold conditions when the battery voltage drops to 6 volts, then you need a ballast resistor to drop the voltage to 6 V after the engine starts.

If you use a 12 volt coil, no ballast resistor is used. It is not like there is a resistor inside. Instead there are twice the number of turns of a smaller gauge wire which makes the internal resistance of the 12V coil approximately twice that of the 6V coil.

You can use an ignitor with a 6V or 12V coil, but the ignitor will need 12V to run, so it has to connect on the key side of the ballast resistor and not the coil side.

Thank you for clarification on the coil resistors. Do you think not running a resistor with the coils pictured above caused them to go bad?

Trying to flow that last bit, is an ignitor required with my set up? Can you help me understand the job of an ignitor? an ignitor is the piece that replaces the points? sorry, Im new!