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

Hello. all, again. On my '37 120, it came with an after-market ignition coil, where the ignition cable is attached to one pole on the outside instead of being attached through the back. When I spin the engine, I do not seem to be getting spark from the coil into the distributor. The poles on the coil are marked "+" and "-" and I have the ignition cable currently attached to the "-" side. Before I swap these lines into the coil, I would like to see if I can get confirmation that my connecting the ignition cable to the "-" side was correct. With the ignition turned on, I get voltage shown when I use my volt meter between the negative pole and the engine block. Any confirmation that I do have it connected correctly would be appreciated.
Thanks.

That would be correct. With a positive ground car the wire coming from the ignition switch would be on the negative coil terminal and the positive terminal would go to the distributor.

With ignition key on you should read 6v between the negative coil terminal and block. On the positive terminal, it will vary. If the points are open you should have the 6v and if the points are closed it should read in the range of 0 to around .3v. A reading closer to 0v is better.

If it never goes to the low 0v side either the points are not closing or has oxidation on the contact surfaces. It could also be that somewhere the wire to dist and points is disconnected. If it never rises above the 0v side look for a short in the distributor. If the dist uses the short flexible wire to connect points to an outside terminal check that wire or possibly there is a shorted condenser. If the points are closed but the voltage is higher than about .3v then check for a poor ground at the distributor or oxidized points.

Howard. Thank you for confirming what I thought was supposed to go on. I shall take your advice and see what else I might find.
Thanks, again.