It was running but now it isn't. It's a Mercury 312 and I have a new distributor from a 57 Mercury. I set the point gap to .018 and noticed no spark out of the dist cap. I have a arc at the points and when I put the dist cap on I can hear it arcing but nothing out of the cap. Wrong cap I guess but it's what came with the distributor and it ran just last week. I've replaced the condenser also and the points. I put a ballasted resister before the coil but it seems to smoke at times. Something is wrong with all of this.
Should I get another condenser? I read that NO arc is supposed to occur at the point gap...I'm reading conflicting information when I searched online for an answer.

 

take coil wire out of cap and hold about 1/4"away from block or manifold and arc points to check coil output first.

 

Is your rotor in good shape ? It could be grounding to the dizzy shaft .

 

The rotor is also new and shows no sign of wear

 

Well, I pulled everything out again and reinstalled it. This time it worked. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong earlier but it all works now. Thanks for the input guys

 

Points wouldn't be that big a deal, except on Y blocks the dizzie is at an angle at the back of the motor. Gotta be a dang contortionist. Have had good performance with the Pertronics/Igniter system of points replacement.
If I was gonna run points again I would make a special point (heh) of finding a couple domestic made NOS sets from back in the day (versus brand new manufacture from who knows where) because the materials are likely to be better and last a lot longer. Keep a set in my glovebox w/condensor but never needed them (yet). Even points can be ruined if, the engine is not running, the ignition inadvertantly left in the RUN position, and the points happen to be closed, iirc.

While I am most def an old-school iron fan, ignition upgrades are OK insofar as spark plugs last much longer and the spark plug gap can be opened up and fed a lot fatter spark. Maybe the electronic conversion compensates to some degree the slop or wear in the distributor ***'y, but it reaally seemed to add some zip about as much as anything.

Of course nobody wants to hear about electronic ignition on an ignition points thread but thought it might be somethings to think about.

 

On the contrary, I think maybe one of you may be able to help me here. I pulled out a 1979 351 windsor, with electronic ignition which ran perfectly except for rod knock. I set the distributor aside along with every other component and installed the newer engine which came without a distributor - but it had the variable venturi carb on it which I took off and put my old carb on. so now NO SPARK. I have voltage to the coil (original). But how to test the dist. wires? I bet I connected something backwards (though with plug connections I don't see how) or maybe broke a wire inside the insulation and how to start looking. Any ideas? I really cant' afford to get a brand new dist/electronic system and start from scratch.