I am working on a 1951 239 flathead, I got it to turn and ran a hot wire from the battery to the positive side of the coil to try and start it. I checked and have power on both sides of the coil, in the coil wire to the distributor, at the points, and at the condenser. Not to the spark plugs. I have taken all of the plug wires loose and made sure that they had good contact with the plugs and did the same to the wires to the distributor cap. I slid one of the plug wires loose and touched it to the plug while cranking the motor and still no power to the plugs. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

You do have the rotor on top of the distributor shaft, Right? Try removing the distributor cap and cranking the engine. Are your points opening and closing? If they are are they corroded where they make contact? Are they gapped correctly? With power to the coil do the points spark when you open them?

 

If your truck is still 6v / (+) ground, that is the wrong side of the coil to hook the battery to.

 

As mentioned, remove the cap and see if you are getting spark at the points

Also, check the wire between the points and the coil, especially where it runs through the distributor housing. These wires are old enough that they can crack and break, or the insulation can crack and they can short out to the housing.

Good luck
Bobby

 

The human animal always makes things hard. I went through and rechecked everything and discovered that the new points had a glaze on them, a few swipes of an emery board and everything is working. Thanks for the info anyway.

 

That "glaze" is compacted oxide corrosion. Your points aren't as new as you think they are. They have microscopic pits now from that process. It used to be that a new contact set came with a piece of thick paper between them, but not anymore. Most likely caused by salt air from that slow boat from China.

 

Thanks for the info although it speaks again of crap from China, I would love to buy Made in America parts but regrettably they are few and far between. I am old enough to remember the paper between the new points along with a small tube of grease to lube the thing.