Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I am about to pull my hair out. My car has a problem it appears to be located in the Ignition system I put a new distributor cap on the car then started it up and pulled it into the driveway to give it a wash. When I was done I tried to start it up and drive it back into the garage well it cranked but would not fire up I put a test light on the coil it lit up bright. A friend suggested the condenser may be the issue so I ordered one from max merritt (there only $15 bucks) if that fails to get this engine to fire up I don't know what to do.

One thing that happened to me: The rotor on my engine (1953 327) has a carbon rod to act as a resistor, to reduce interference with the radio. Those can break, randomly. Not sure that was true all the way back in 1940, but who knows what's on your car!

Check Ross' great video here:

Ross Video about Distributors and Setting the Timing

Also it's great to get one of these to just double-check you are getting spark even while the engine is cranking over. They are great. I actually left it on one cylinder while I was driving around, no problems, helped me monitor whether things were changing when the engine warmed up.

NAPA - Inline Spark Plug Tester

In addition to the condenser, the coil could also be at fault. Sometimes a failing coil will work fine when cold but as it heats up and expands an internal connection can open up and cause problems.

If the distributor is the type with the internal fabric covered flexible wire connecting the points to the outside terminal, a chunk of fabric can fall off providing an intermittent short. If the wire runs under the advance plate sometimes this happens out of sight.

Ign switches have also been known to fail. The coil gets power from a separate contact in the ign switch and heat or wear could be affecting it as well. If it has the armored cable between the switch and coil, the old fabric covered wire inside the cable has also been known to intermittently short.

If the car has an overdrive, an intermittently shorted wire going down to the solenoid or a problem in the kickdown or ignition cutout circuit could also short the coil killing the spark.

Did you figure it out?

You could try removing the distributor cap to see if condensation is on the inside of the cap. If so wipe out the condensation and lay a drop light below the distributor for an hour or so to heat it up and remove condensation then replace the distributor cap and try to start it