My dear dear yellow... well I posted a week or 2 ago about starting issues with it. I got all of that straight, sorta. Now that the coil is wired up correctly... still no go. I got it to fire a few times and run a little rough (probably because of timing or carb setting). So I thought I'd fiddle with tilater again, well then the starter quit on me.

Got that fixed, now it won't do anything.

I can't find the marks on the crank pully for the timing, but my understanding is that the truck should run on TDC. Just weak obviously. I have spark at the plugs but it's a weak one. Could the coil be giving out on me (I had it wired backwards before. + - neg/neg - +)? Wouldn't it cause a dull/weak spark?

I get a piston to fire every now and then but thats it, even with a shot of ether. So it's not a fuel issue.

 

Check the wire that runs from the coil to the distibutor; it goes to the side of the dizzy body, under the points plate, and up to the points. The part underneath needs to flex a fair amount and frequently the insulation breaks down and it shorts the circuit.

The timing is right when the little bump on the crank flange aligns with the pointer on the timing case. That is 4 BTDC.

 

Depending on how long you ran the coil hooked up backwards you might have damaged it. I had that happen to me years ago....

 

ALBUQ F-1 - Thank you! I thought the bump was TDC!!! Man that helps me so much. The timing is WAY off if thats the case haha.

Great North Woods - thats a great point, because I have moved that wire several times. I will check/repair it before I go any further.

 

If you have a good multi-meter you can check out the coil. An ignition coil is really two coils in one housing. The coils of wire are called windings are insulated copper wire. Each loop of wire is usually referred to as a "turn".

The primary coil is a few of turns of relatively fat wire (that coil is the one that gets battery power and is controlled by the opening and closing of the points). The secondary is more turns of thinner wire and is the one that hooks to the "high tension" center lead of your distributer. On either coil, the insulation can break down & make a short circuit. A classic "short" means that the current doesn't flow through the whole set of windings...it takes a shorter path....you get less coil, which can result in a weak spark.

With all of the wires unhooked, use a multi-meter to measure the resistance (the ohm's setting) between the plus and minus leads for the primary coil....and again between the center high tension lead and the minus lead (well...since yours is a positive ground. the test would be from the high tension lead to the plus terminal).

I don't have a service manual with me right now, so you'll need to check the tune-up section of your manual for specs. If the resistance values are off spec by even a little bit, toss the coil & replace it with a new one.

I've seen this before where an ignition coil sits for years, and fails pretty soon after you start using it again...insulation breaks down with age.

 

I do have a multi meter and wondered if there was a way to check it. It's a new coil but because of my awesome backward wiring I'm pretty sure it's bad now. I've got all my specs on the laptop so I will get the numbers and test it.

Thank you for the insight.