Ignition issue

[Scottwattz]

Gentlemen, I haven't formally introduced myself yet. I bought a 76' a couple of months ago. My very own "Barn find" per say. It wasn't for sale nor was I shopping but I couldn't help but love the car so I left a note at the house, he called me a month later and the rest is history! To my amazement I had it running smoothly within two hours of tinkering! Just needed some fresh gas and timing tweaked. (hadn't run in two years) 

So I've probably put 250 miles on it.. and one day while tweaking the carb, a 12v coil wire that was hanging around (a last ditch effort from previous owner) must have touched the exhaust when hot and fried the sh*t out of the coil and relay and damn near started a fire at the fuse box!! It was close i tell ya. Anyways after a week of rewiring everything that melted, I got it back running! Then the next day, I go to crank and I got no spark. hmm. power to the coil check. points are clean on distributor check. Replaced the distributor condensor check. No what in the world am I missing?? I'm ready to get my resto on but like the girl to pull in and out of the garage on its own right!

thanks for any help

-Scott

[ray_]

Sounds like you have all the pluses figured out.

 

Look at the minuses. ;-)

 

Block ground needed for distributor function.

 

My $0.02.

 

Cheers,

[Scottwattz]

its grounded back to a relay that is grounded to the firewall. Was going to move it but it WAS working. Shall I try and move it or just ground the distributor by itself?

[ray_]

Check the main ground(s) from the battery to the block also. Maybe look at the wires to the points again also to make certain they are not grounding out. 

 

Worked before. Find it ;-)

 

Or I could be wrong!

[Scottwattz]

6 minutes ago, ray_ said:

Check the main ground(s) from the battery to the block also. Maybe look at the wires to the points again also to make certain they are not grounding out. 

 

Worked before. Find it ;-)

 

Or I could be wrong!

oh I'll find it for sure!

Its funny because anything electrical is NOT my strong suit and of course will be the first problem I face. It's like the car gods are telling me "you better get your electrical sh*t together because this car is about to unleash a world of issues"!

[jimk]

You have the original head to coil/body ground that has been removed by most hackers.  Keep it and connect from the back of the head to a body location.

Ray is referring to a high amp ground braid that runs from the battery negative to the block on the driver's side.  It takes the heavy current when cranking as well as charging current.

Scottwaltz, the melting incident wiring/circuit is probably still involved.  There will be +12v to the coil in both start and run positions of the key.  Check for those.  Next if you diddled with the points, ensure they are gapped correctly and after it runs, the points dwell and timing will have to be reset.

[Scottwattz]

when you refer to "head" your talking the distributor condensor ground?

[Scottwattz]

32 minutes ago, jimk said:

You have the original head to coil/body ground that has been removed by most hackers.  Keep it and connect from the back of the head to a body location.

Ray is referring to a high amp ground braid that runs from the battery negative to the block on the driver's side.  It takes the heavy current when cranking as well as charging current.

Scottwaltz, the melting incident wiring/circuit is probably still involved.  There will be +12v to the coil in both start and run positions of the key.  Check for those.  Next if you diddled with the points, ensure they are gapped correctly and after it runs, the points dwell and timing will have to be reset.

The main ground from the terminal-to-block did "fall out" from terminal side. I re crimped it and tightened back. I wonder if its just not tight enough to supply the correct ground to distributor? I know i'm in over my head but trying!!

[jimk]

6 hours ago, Scottwattz said:

when you refer to "head" your talking the distributor condensor ground?

No, the engine head.  Actually the sparkplugs wont spark if there is not a complete circuit ground from the block to the coil housing.  Usually this is routed thru the block to battery and battery to fender ground strap on late cars.  Early cars had a second ground strap from the rear of the head to the coil mounting bolt too.  That avoided the rusty strap to fender bolting poor ground.  Condenser to distr housing is grounded thru the condenser mounting screw.

[Scottwattz]

well turns out it was a bad ground from terminal to block. Got fresh points and wires in the meantime along with some great learning experience! I think i burned up the heater fan too but that's not near as bad as it not running. Cheers!

thanks for your help guys