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Hi

My name is Brian Galway and I am the owner of a 1954 Patrician. I am not getting any spark and here is what I have done. I put in a 6 volt battery, made new spark plug wires,installed new plugs, distributor cap, coil, condenser, points and distributor lead wire primary.

I need to reset the points and connect the yellow ignition wire to see if Iget a spark.

If I do not get a spark can anyone make suggestions about what I should do next? Any and all help is appreciated.

The car is on the owners registry 5452 3733 Black. Thanks BrianNo spark on 54 Patrician

Make sure the yellow wire connecting to the coil has good solid standing voltage of 6.3v to ground and that voltage hopefully stays above 5.5v when the engine is cranking. If the starter is dragging or something is causing a lot of extra load the voltage can drop down as low as 5v and voltage that low will provide no or a just barely adequate spark. The starter does draw a lot of current and if the original battery cables have been replaced with a too small modern 12v battery cable or if the battery cannot provide adequate CCA the electrical system cannot provide a consistent voltage to the coil.

When the points are open the other coil terminal that connects to the dist will also read the same or near the same voltage as the yellow wire. When points are closed that second voltage should drop very close to 0 or just a few tenths above 0. Bump the engine to get a few point open and closes while you watch the meter. If the voltage stays high, the points are not closing and need adjustment. If it stays near 0, points are not opening or there is a short in the distributor or condenser. If the low voltage is more than .5v above 0 when points are closed there is a suspect ground to the dist or a poor connection in the distributor.

Since you did some work in the distributor check the flexible cloth covered wire between the outside terminal and the points. In many cases the fabric insulation on the flex wire is rotten and falls off when the wire is disturbed by changing points etc. The wire is sometimes hidden or out of sight in spots and the damage or shorted section is not easily seen. If you do need a new flex wire be sure to get a proper one and do not use ordinary wire. Regular wire is too stiff and will soon break with the continual motion of the advance mechanisms.

G'day BrianGalway,
to PackardInfo.

I invite you to include your '54 Patrician in the Packard Owner's Registry.

When my 1954 Patrician wouldn't fire after decades of storage, first thing I did was to make sure that the distributor was grounded. It was grounded so I ran a thin very fine sand paper and then some some heavy paper between the points to polish them a bit, and it started right up!

Something's not coming across clear here.
How did you determine spark was "the" problem?

Was this work done before and you didn't get spark after, or it was not "sparking", so you did all this to fix that, but you haven't completed all the work yet? So won't spark not hooked up? Where you're losing what your question is, you're assuming it's not going to work?

Double check all the ignition connections are tight and in the proper places. Should be a electrical diagram on this site somewhere for that year. Check the voltages to make sure it's hot when key on. Make sure you have the proper parts and they're good. Should be on the Xref list. (Make sure the coil has no internal resistor.) Set the points and distributor to the correct position. #1 on compression.
I prefer to use an instrument to check for spark rather than the touch plug to the head. Some spark, none, or low are different issues. Double check the plug wires are in the proper location per the firing order.
I probably would have replaced the battery cables(suggest you upgrade), if I did this much. 6V doesn't like much resistance and needs larger 00 cables. At minimum, take them off, inspect, clean where they make contact and re-tighten. Wires or connectors corroded or insulation bad, replace.

It's no wonder my 48 wont start - the flex wire has a piece of tape around it , and the adjustment screw for the points is missing -

Howard

Thanks for the info

Brian

Hi Jim

I bought the car and from the get go there was no spark. So, I started with a tune up and started to replace what needed replacing. hope to get spark before I do any more replacing stuff but not sure. I am trying to figure out next steps
Cables appear right for car but have not been touched.

Could remove and clean as next step as well as doing everything suggested by everyone


Thanks for tips. Will let you know progress

Brian

Good Morning...This might be a stretch...but we had a Model A Ford in the shop that gave us fits until we, by elimination, checked the ignition switch! We jumped it and the old girl fired right up...sort of an out of the box problem...however it might be worth checking...as well as all under the dash wiring...Ernie in Arizona

Hi

Good idea

Thanks

Brian