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Hello all. I purchased a 1948 Touring Sedan 2262. Came without keys or tumbler switch. Have been trying to get a spark by running negative ground to starter and a hot wire set up to the coil but cannot get spark. New coil, points .017 set, condenser, cap and rotor.

After looking at the electrical chart on this site, I cannot tell if the -coil wire goes to the battery or distributor.

Again, I apologize for asking newbie questions, but I am flummoxed.

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Welcome to the forum.

The positive battery terminal is ground, neg goes to one of the large posts on solenoid. There will also be a red wire on that terminal which goes to amp meter first and then out amp meter to ignition switch to AM terminal. From the ign switch, there is a yellowish wire on one shorter terminal (COIL) by itself (unless there has been an accessory added) which goes to coil and provides that voltage. The other side of coil goes to distributor points. The other wires on ign switch should be on the longer GA terminal and provide all the accessory as well as starter switch feeds. You can hotwire around the ign switch by a jumper from the battery solenoid terminal to the yellowish wire at coil. The black wire at coil should be going to dist points and if there is no problem in dist, should get a spark. To check the distributor, remove the wire from that terminal and with the hotwire setup to the coil, just tap it against the block. There have been others having problems with the wire inside the distributor. Being old and fragile, sometimes the fabric insulation fails & shorts the wire when points are changed.

Thanks for the tips. However there were no wires from coil or ammeter. No ignition switch. I am basically wiring it from scratch and trying to start it from under the hood. Is the + side of the coil the side that goes to the distributor? Does the ammeter guage complete the circuit? As there are no wires to discern from.

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Yes, the + side should go to dist as the positive battery cable would normally be grounded that year. Normally everything goes thru ammeter but in this case with just the hotwire setup, you should be able to put the battery on neg terminal, connect the + terminal to a wire and tap that against the block to see a spark without turning the engine over. If you do, then connect to dist and try again normally. If no spark, then either look to the shorted wire inside or if the battery is weak and voltage is pulling way down with starter load, there may not be enough for a spark.

Battery is weak. Can I use a 12v sparingly without burning up points or condenser to check for spark?

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Won't hurt the points or condenser but the coil being for 6 v may be damaged since the voltage out will be so much higher. The starter solenoid may also be damaged either from voltage or mechanical. Not sure if yours has the big solenoid bringing the starter gear into mesh via linkage or just the normal bendix but 12v will be pretty violent to those and may cause damage. There have been a couple reports when people have done 12v conversions and wound up the starter gears shattered.

Tried to see if wire to dist from coil had spark. No good. Have battery -side to -side of coil. +side to dist. Will check wire inside dist now. Can I make this wire from a certain guage myself?

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Have you verified you can get a spark between coil output to block just by scratching or tapping the wire that would normally go on dist to block? I'd make sure of that first just to make sure the wire or maybe new coil isn't bad or maybe coil is the wrong one. The wire in distributor has to be very flexible so ordinary hookup wire will not work for long. It will be too stiff for the advance to work properly and will eventually break from the flexing of the advance. If you have an ohm meter, you can disconnect the coil, then connect one side of meter to block and other side to the distributor terminal and manually work the points. You should be able to see the meter go from short to open. If it does, wire is OK.

I you just want to test it, here is how I temp wire my '54 which will be similar to yours. (edited for positive ground application)

You will have the negative on the battery connected to the large lug on the starter solenoid. Disconnect everything else from that lug so you don't fry anything with the 12v. Connect the positive on the battery to the ground strap.

Connect a wire from the side (grounding) terminal on the distributor to the positive on the coil. (16 gauge is fine)

When ready to test, use an alligator clip wire to connect the large lug on the starter solenoid to the the negative on the coil. This will simulate you turning the ignition to the "on" position.

Then you kick over the starter by using a remote start button (safe way) or a length of wire temporarily between the starter solenoid large lug and the solenoid small trigger terminal.

Make sure when you are done you remove the alligator clip from the coil to "turn it off".

Be warned that 12v may kill the solenoid or cause it to stick on. So leave the one of the battery terminals loose so you can remove it quickly to shut everything off it needed.

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I'm hoping the coil is good. I just got it from NAPA. It does look like a generic 6v coil. Is there something I am missing on coil selection. I thought all 6v coils were alike.