Well, although you seem to have pleanty of advise, I will chime in with my questions. Is it 6-volt negative ground as you stated? Both of mine are 6-volt pos ground. Also, when the truck is running, what is your voltage on the battery? Jag

 

Fuel or voltage: Was the tank cleaned out? Is the fuel recent, clean filter?Recheck carb basic settings for new install.

Is the battery new, old, amperage? Some faults sound like low voltage. Wiring install set for 6 pos ground as Jag suggested. Dist sounds as not new, check inside for shorted wires, points adj, capacitor ok. Timing, estimate position. How are you keeping the battery charged during this trouble period? Are you getting spark at all wires to sparkplugs?Any chance you may have a short in your wiring harness going through the firewall? Could the ignition switch have a internal short?Did you install multi grounds, frame, engine, cab,bed.Can't have to many. Hope this helps, have a great day,chuck

 

The Pertronix has nothing to do with cranking. That would be the battery/ starter and could also be timing. If timing is too advanced, the engine will struggle to crank over. Could be other things, but these are the usual...

 

Also, I forgot to ask if you have the bigger battery cables required for the 6-volt amperage. The thin 12 volt stuff will cause cranking problems. (Although that would have nothing to do with being unable to start the truck by pulling it) Jag

 

First off, Thank you to all of you that have chimed in with advice. You guys are helping me tremendously through this very frustrating ordeal.

The truck is 6 volt positive ground and is wired for that. I have multiple grounds and have marine grade very large battery cables hooked up as of now. The distributor is not new and is original. I put the points back in yesterday and they shorted out in the distributor, which means I am close. The plastic actually melted and then the points made contact with the lobe.

Can someone explain how the ignition system should work in regards to the path of power through the circuit?

I have 6 volts to the ignition wire that goes to the coil. I don't have 6 volts inside the distributor on the primary feed to the points.

How does this get power or how does this work? I thought I had half a clue as to how this works, but now am second guessing myself.

I have been trickle charging the battery each night to keep it up to snuff and run a starting charger while cranking to make sure I have enough juice for everything to work.

Thanks again guys.

 

the fuel is new and I have been running inline fuel filters before the pump to make sure nothing gets through to the pump. tank was cleaned and I have now rebuilt the carbs and checked adjustments 4 times over the past 3 weeks.

 

I don't understand what you mean by the points burning up. If you research "Earl's World" in this site, you should find a wiring diagram showing the proper wire connections. Jag

 

With the points open, you should see 6v on the point arm (movable arm). If not you have a short somewhere; it is common to be missing a fiber washer that insulates the arm from the grounded points plate.

 

There should be a points condensor with the points, maybe replace that with a new one.

 

Thanks guys. I'll check for the fiber washer later. Where whould it be placed if there isn't one there already? I didn't see one yesterday, but wasn't looking for it either.

 

Battery: Amps from battery. Unless you have a volt meter and amp meter on during cranking I'm not sure if there is enough. Sometimes a new engine is hard to start until it is broken in and it draws a battery down quickly.
New harness: all wires checked with a ohm meter before wires are attaches on either end. Staples/screws/ etc can cause high restance shorts during installation. Bad wire insulation stripping and crimping wire ends using foreign tools and bad methods leave to few wires in terminal ends, ending in bad connetions. All wire connections should be checked with battery installed before attaching to components. If your friend can double check your installation it would give a second set of eyes looking. Many people have grown up using 12 VDC neg ground. So when you are tired it's hard to remember 6 VDC POS ground. I see you found a dist problem and a wiring diagram, that is a elimination start. Changing so many components and harness like we do leaves us open to many failures. I'm making check list on things I learn from these problems for future use as my project progresses. Have a great day,chuck

 

The fiber washer is used where the wire from the coil attaches to the points. Not all designs of points use a fiber washer, some use an insulated bushing. You need to make sure that wire doesn't connect to ground, but since you had the engine running earlier, it seems unlikely that is the problem. There is sometimes also a ground wire inside the distributor that grounds the points plate to the body of the distributor. Can't say if that is the case because you still haven't told us what engine this is!!!

 

I thought I mentioned that it is a 239 flathead v8. I got it running yesterday, but not well. It was running lean on the back 2 plugs on each bank. I am going to play around a little more today. I'm getting closer! I got spark and actually zapped myself checking for it. I wasn't expecting to get spark and grabbed the cab with one hand and the points with the multimeter! I know.....stupid rookie mistake!

 

and yes, there was a grounding wire inside the distributor and it was making contact with the points arm. that's why I cooked the points 2 days ago. Progress is good for morale!

 

any suggestions for a new battery? I'm leaning towards an optima 6v. I need something that will last a little longer than the regular old "heavy duty" 6 volt battery.