A friend of mine owns a '64 econoline truck with a 170, that has been sitting under a shed since 1993. I decided it was time to get the truck running, so bought a carb kit and rebuilt the one-barrel. Everything on the carb feels smooth now, but now we're having problems with fire. I poured marvel mystery oil into the cylinders, and when I tried to crank it with starter fluid, the points in the distributor would only spark once. After a few more attempts, I started seeing sparks at the coil and the distributor points were arcing at the opposite end of the gap. Replaced the coil and points and now no spark at all. I have a new battery, plugs, points, and coil.

From what I can tell, there is 12 volts to coil and distributor. What am I missing? Distributor cap looks new. Also, I bought new wires from autozone, but they were so far from the originals (pretty much all wrong lengths) I couldn't use them, so what wires should I get?

Thanks for any input on the situation.

 

Also, it would be a massive help if any one had a wiring diagram for this truck. I've been trying to chase wires but they all turn into that dull gray/black oil and soot color.

Thanks again!

 

Sounds like it might be a bad condenser. You should have replaced that with the points, but sometimes they go bad.

 

There are several Yahoo groups for old Econolines and the Vintage Vans website where you can find the wiring diagrams.