...sorry folks no spark from coil 71 fj40 (1 Viewer)

[sproggy]

Hi guys and gals, after searching the forum I am still confused. I have a 7/71 with a Delco distributer from Manafre....back in the day 20+ years ago. I'm not getting any spark from my coil. I live out of the country and so haven't been with the truck until a couple days ago. When I left two years ago, the truck was running well and I was driving it around. It has been sitting in an unheated barn in Massachusetts since then with the battery unhooked and has not been started or used. I got back to town and as I said, no spark. Let me add that I did swap out the instrument cluster right before leaving and I cannot be sure if I started the car after doing that swap. Could this be a source of the problem...bad connections or wrong ammeter or...?
So with the ignition on and points open I have juice to the + side of coil and to the minus side though I don't know how much juice. I have juice to the moving part of the points. I've cleaned the connections on the fuse block, on the coil, the rotor and the dizzy cap. I checked for cracks but cap looks fine. Tried a different coil wire and also a different coil but still no spark. Bought a new condenser but that changed nothing. I don't have a voltage meter to test how much juice is running through everything...is that super important? I'm trying to avoid spending the cash for one. (...don't have a lot of that right now, cash that is).

Some other info: the ignition cylinder is a bit wonky and putting the key in the "on" position doesn't always turn on the juice and it must be jiggled. But I circumvent this by pulling the connector off the back of the key cylinder and completing the circuit with some wires so I would think this would eliminate this issue from the spark issue.
I have run a jumper from the + battery to the + coil and tried to start but no change.

I am confused about this:

"Pull center wire from distributor and place it 1/4 inch from the engine block.
Remove the distributor wire from the - side of the coil.
Turn the key on.
Momentarily ground the - side of the coil and check for spark. If it sparks, reconnect the distributor wire and manually open and close the points and see if it sparks.

If it doesn't spark, then run a wire from the + battery post to the + side of the coil and try again.
If it sparks, then the ignition circuit from the key switch is bad."

In the above info, "turn the key on" means crank the engine?

Thanks all. A bit long, I know, and an all-too-common topic.

Cheers, Sproggy

 

[sproggy]

...one other thing. Where the - wire form the coil connects to the distributor, this is not a great connection. The wire is tight enough on the outside but the connection on the inside, where the condenser wire and points attach, this is not particularly tight and cannot be tightened more as the pin that they slide over just spins around. Might be tough to understand as it is a Delco dizzy. Pic needed? Let me put it this way: even tightened up the best I can do I can slide off the points and condenser connectors. I don't recall if this was always like this or not.

...cheers.

 

[cooney]

Here's to hoping you get some good responses to your questions. I'm dealing with the same issues now and was preparing information for a post of my own. Good luck to you.

 

[sproggy]

Actually, I got it running today. I was looking at the HT wire that goes from the middle of the coil to the dist. It has an inner metal core that at the two ends is folded back over the rubber sleeve so that it can make contact with the metal fitting that slides into the coil and the dist. cap. I thought that this metal core perhaps was not making great contact with the fitting so for kicks I squashed it up tighter against the metal fitting/sleeve on both ends. ...Probably not explained very well but suffice it to say this HT lead was not making good contact. After I messed with it with the screwdriver I got a great spark and after I stuck it back into the dist. cap the truck fired right up. So, maybe you have a bad lead, too?
Good luck to you, too.

 

[JohnnyC]

Turn key on ... Is just turn key on

how do you know that you have juice to the coil and to points? Are you using test light?

Are the points opening and closing ?

Had you checked the condition of the points? Clean them?

Very easy to use a piece of fine sand paper on the points in the closed position and clean them up and see if it tries to start

 

[JohnnyC]

Ops looks like you got it to start LOL

Glad you got it going

Where in mass ? Im in Albany NY

 

[SouthBostonFJ40]

Where in mass ? Im in Albany NY

What he said. I'm in eastern Ma.

 

[sproggy]

Hey guys, thanks for the responses. I'm in eastern MA, too, on the south shore. Had this truck for 30 years now. Crazy.