Re: 6 V coil

Posted by Sherlock On 2017/10/12 20:36:19

Thanks everyone. I removed the distributor and found the former owner had painted the area where it sits. Scraped that off and now the reading between distributor terminal and ground with points closed is zero. Bought metal ignition wire and fashioned a new coil wire. When I open the points, a nice spark jumps 1/4" to ground. Spark at the plugs appears brighter as well. When I turn the engine over the voltage between the switch terminal and ground drops to around 5V.

Unfortunately, I still get no sign of life from the engine. One would think with spark and fuel you'd at least get a random firing. I tested all cylinders for compression and the engine-cold reading on all is 82 psi (+/-) 1 . There is plenty of suction at the carb throat. Tried starting fluid in case something is amiss with the carb, but it still failed to fire.

Could the distributor be off by enough to preclude starting or even firing? I previously attached a pointer to the timing chain cover and marked the vibration damper to correspond with a line where it says "Spark" on the flywheel. Used a timing light when turning over engine to set the distributor so the damper mark lines up with the pointer. Rotor is at #1 contact in the distributor cap when cylinder #1 is at the top of its compression stroke.

I have to say the line on the flywheel wasn't as obvious as I thought it would be and it was right in the middle of the word "spark." Picture in the owner's manual shows the line to the side of the word "spark." Maybe my mark is off. If the timing was too far retarded (or too far advanced) would the engine fail to fire entirely?