I was able to get back to the care a a few hours after my wife illness. It was running fine when I left it a month ago. I went to start it and no spark at the plug. I checked at the coil and there was 12 volts>. I assume the coil is bad and ordered a new one. Any ideas??? It is a 1960 Chevy with a 409. Thanks for any suggestions. Jerry
No spark at the plug.
- Thread starter albjerryg
- Start date
Point distributor?
Clean the points.
Clean the points.
When you check the wire from the distributor to the coil it should haw a pulse at your meter when cranking. If not you have a problem in the distributor.
in my experience, ignition coils are almost as unbreakable as an anvil. I have replaced, or gave instructions to replace at least a couple hundred in my career. Of those, probably 3 or 4 were actually bad - all the rest were just throwing parts at the problem.
if you have no spark at the spark plugs themselves, and voltage to the coil - there’s only the ignition points or electronic pick ups maybe it’s a cracked distributor cap or rotor, a bad coil or coil wire, but my best is on the points.
keep working backwards from the plugs, to the big coil wire to the distributor
in my experience , trouble shooting is like seeing hoof prints - look for horses first and zebras last..
my $.02 is on something inside the distributor cap.
Chip
63 425hp
if you have no spark at the spark plugs themselves, and voltage to the coil - there’s only the ignition points or electronic pick ups maybe it’s a cracked distributor cap or rotor, a bad coil or coil wire, but my best is on the points.
keep working backwards from the plugs, to the big coil wire to the distributor
in my experience , trouble shooting is like seeing hoof prints - look for horses first and zebras last..
my $.02 is on something inside the distributor cap.
Chip
63 425hp
I would check the ground circuit of the points, or electronic pick up, too,see that the connection is open and closed as the distributor turns. If it breaks and closes, your no spark condition is not internal to the distributor .
I would expect to find a poor connection , loose points assembly or something blocking the light..
The attachment shows the tracing path, in this case working backwards from the sparkplugs, which receive no spark.
My next $.02 predicts something blocking the path across the points - making my total investment in the project $.04
good luck
Chip
How Ignition Systems Work
Learn how the three types of ignition systems work – the conventional breaker-point ignition, electronic ignition and distributorless ignition.
This is the site address - probably have to do a cut and paste to get there
Since it was running fine a month ago, did you have to use a battery charger or booster or was the battery still nice and charged after sitting? If you had to use a booster and your electronic ignition is a pertronix I would troubleshoot that first for whatever reason those pertronix ignitors don't like it when you weld on the rig or when you strike an arc when hooking up jumper cables, if that checks out ok I would check any grounds associated with your ignition system if the car is not in a climate controlled garage, any humidity in the air may have allowed a little corrosion to compromise your path to ground, usually wiggling the wire connections in your ground path is enough to allow at least an intermittent spark.
