Electrical frustrations...again..lol

[hdheritage97]

Ok guys, let's see who knows what's what with the starting system here on this thing...lol. Parked it for the winter running great, tried to start it over the weekend, no go. Battery is charged so forget that. I pulled the #1 plug, grounded it to the valve cover and I have no spark. So, I took out a light and tested the juice to the coil, plenty of juice to both sides of the coil. No juice from the coil though when I pulled the wire and held it near the valve cover. My question, besides what's wrong is #1. should I get juice to the negative side of the coil as well as the positive, and #2. if the coil were good, shouldn't it have jumped a spark to the valve cover when I turned it over ? Anyone with any ideas what's wrong please contact me ASAP, the weathers just too nice....lol.

Cliff

[petek]

Bad coil, bad points... one or the other.

Positive side of the coil should be hot all of the time. Negative side should show hot and then ground as the points open and close.

Of course the above is all wrong if you are using and electronic distributor and an ignition module.

[hdheritage97]

I'm using a Mallory electronic unit so I guess we can start from scratch again.

Cliff

[aumoore]

Cliff

Here is a troubleshooting guide for Mallory systems

http://www.centuryperformance.com/ma...oubleshoot.asp

If you have a Unilight it could have shorted out if you did any welding or jumped the car off. Mallory does not recommend jumping a Unilight distributor equiped car or you can burn out the eye module.

Here is a warning from Century Performance on the Unilight module
"Anytime you do *anything* electrical on the vehicle ... I do not care whether you are charging the battery, changing the alternator, the starter, or anything at all on the car ... DISCONNECT the 3-wire connector from the distributor. This will guarantee you do not spike the Unilite® module. If you do not want to take a chance at spiking the module, this is the best way. Remember, it is not the module that is dying on its own, it is some other component (or human) that is causing the failure. You just want to make sure that nothing bad happens to your module."

If you do not do something stupid these modules are very reliable.

good luck

[Cobra20646]

A quick way to check your coil.....

Remove any wires from the negative post on the coil.

Turn ignition switch on ..... check for voltage at positive post on coil.

Remove high voltage output wire from distributor and position it close to engine block ( or other grounded object )

Using a length of wire, connect one side to the engine block ( or other grounded object )

Touch the other end of the wire to the negative side of the coil and then remove it. When you remove the ground from the negative side of the coil, you should see a spark. No spark = bad coil.

Depending on your ignition system, you might also check for pulses of light (from your 12 volt test light) if you probe the negative side of the coil while turning over the engine.

You might also check for 12 volts at the positive side of the coil while cranking over the engine.... this will check the ballest resistor bypass contacts of the starter solenoid, if present.

- Jim -