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I'm sorry, I was thinking of the '55s solenoid when I said that. You are right about the 6 volt one. I'm having a "senior moment".

One thing to be aware of on 6v is the condition of battery, size of cables and good connections. The ign system is unforgiving of problems with any of those.

Even if you have a good spark outside to the block, once connected to a plug under compression it needs to be very good. If the voltage to coil drops down while cranking lower than about 5v there may not be enough spark to jump the gap.

A lot of cranking could have worn the battery down a bit. The load of the starter motor or too small of cables & that low voltage could be happening.

I'd have the battery on charge while you verify everything to keep that up. If you have the type charger where you can leave it connected while cranking to provide extra amps while you figure what's amiss so much the better.

Thanks!

Dear N.C.

All of the suggestions here should help you isolate the problem. Let's put them in a list.

a) Rather than the hand method a KD spark tester from NAPA will let you check for continuous ignition. The spark should be regular with four beats per revolution from the coil. You should have at least 20Kv.

b) Pump the accelerator and check for fuel. Use a squirt oil can to prime the carburetor.

c) Put your hand over the carburetor and crank the motor. You should have suction. If not, do a compression test and check the cranking vacuum. It should have at least 80psi and 2-5 inhg cranking vacuum. Cranking speed is also important. Too fast means low compression. You can use a jumper wire across the carburetor switch when testing cranking vacuum.

The other day I had a brand new truck come in on a flat bed with a bumper sticker than said "Buy American". I have a set routine for proceeding through these cases. Sometimes they are runnning again before they leave the parking lot. The other people gave up and pushed into my area. It was running again before I went home and the owner happy that there was nothing wrong with his brand new truck.

Quote:

Based on a photo of the interior of his car that I saw over on the PAC site, this may not work. There is a starter button that has been added next to his ignition switch. The Carter Carstarter may have been bypassed.

N.C., did you at any time since the car was running remove the wires from the distributor cap?

Nope I have not moved wires from the cap, I did the plugs one wire at a time (Plugs: Auto-Lite set to .030) And have since re-checked that they are still in order 1-6-2-5-8-3-7-4, and they are. As for the carter starter. Is that my "spare starter" under the gas pedal? Pretty cool, glad that I never floored it while driving and ground the starter tho, never seen anything like it and didn't even know I had it for like a week. The chrome push button that is to the left of my key switch was installed so well, and looks so right in there (to me anyway) that I thought it was OE.

I am about to go employ some of the good advice that I have been given. I was disgusted with the whole deal so I went and got drunk with my neighbor and ate bar-BQ instead of working on the car last night. Sooo today, even WITH a hangover, she is gona run!

So I have a real nice squirt pattern in my carb, clean AND fresh (Fuel, CHECK!), The air filter and top are it the trunk! (Air, CHECK!) I took the coil wire off and held it to a nut on the motor and had my little girl crank it over and it was tagging the bolt fast and strong! The spark was kinda yellow tho, should it be white or blue? Or not on a 6V setup? Then I put a new coil and tried to start it, still nada, then I swapped the original back on there. I put a new rotor and tried it, nada, then I swapped the original back on there. Could it be the points? It ran well at less than 2KRPM (rough above that) when I parked it two days ago, can points take a $hit while freakin' parked!!? I have spark at the plug, (I pulled one and put the wire on it and held it to the exhaust) So that means that the points are still doing their thing correct?

Spark yeallow or orange is weak. Should be blue or whiteish blue. But nothing yellow or orange.

That indicates weak coil and or condensor. Try a new condenser first or a new coil which ever is easiest to try first.

VERY possible that terminal connexions are tarnished/corroded. Not always ez to see with naked eye especialy after 20 or 30 years of corrosion.

Coil terminals, condensor and all other terminals mite need to be removed and SCRAPED to virgin shiny clean metal with knife blade or use a small file. Check cloth insulation of wire INSIDE distributor under the cap.

Pulled the #2 plug and it didn't look flooded at all, The spark was looking pretty pitiful tho, from what I have gathered in the last few days, if the point gap is wrong it will not charge the capacitor for long enough which would result in the weak spark, correct? Also I had the charger on the battery and it said full, took it off to crank over the engine a few times to check the spark, put the plug back, hooked the battery back to the charger and it was back to like 20% I charged it overnight yesterday and same thing as now. I JUST bought that battery last week tho.
I thought that white or blue was the ticket. When I put the new coil on there and repeated the spark SAME yellow spark. When I put the new battery in I wire brushed the corrosion off of the battery cables then put them in new cable ends then put the red and green anti-corrosion pads on the terminals, then put dielectric grease on the terminals, and snugged them down. I really make it a point to NOT half ass ANYTHING that I do. The (construction) code guy joked that they are going to upgrade to code to the way I build stuff! lol I put about half a roll of electrical tape on bare wire before I cranked it up the first time, and will be replacing them one at a time one of these days but I will look under the cap for more bare wires. I did not think about all of the little connection in there. I am about to go give them all a birthday, be back soon!

K, so I cleaned with a fine brass brush the coil - and + bases, washers, nuts, all wire ends going to the coil the base, washer, wire end and screw where the wire from the + side of the coil goes to the base of the cap and put dielectric grease on all and re-assembled, and it helped, it is at least trying to fire but sound behind (retarded) on where it hits. Should I mark where the distributor is now and then advance it some and try it?