QuestionI'm a proud owner of a 1964 Buick Special which has been reliable since owning it. I've slowly replace the minor components under the hood. A new water pump and themostat. To make a long story short, after replacing the intake due to a troublesome screw that was impossible to reach, I moved the vacuum advance accidently. I had it returned to the original position and the timing set once again. It ran, but it would cut out when I slowed down for a stop. I gave her a tune up with autolite spark plugs and wires, a new coil, new points, a rotor, and distributor cap. Now she keeps spinning, but I can't get her to start. I took the wire from the coil and touched it to some metal while cranking the car to see if I was getting fire, but i see no sparks. What could cause me to not get fire from the coil or just not recieve fire at all? I hear that it might be my points. I was told that the points are preset, and that if they were offset, the car should still at least start, but that it might miss. I'm losing plenty of hair trying to figure out what the problem is! Any info would be of great service!
AnswerProblems like this will get a different answer from every person you ask, and lead you down the wrong path more often than not. Don't do anything more until I give up on you, which I seldom do.
What I'd like to do is take baby steps, but I need to know what you have available in the way of electrical test equipment. You don't need much, but you do need either a 12 volt test light (available from any parts store) or a Volt-Ohm-Ammeter ("VOM")like the professional folks use, which you maybe can beg, borrow or steal from someone you know with some electrical experience. As a last resort, you can buy one - Radio Shack stores carry a variety of them - I prefer the analog type, but if you find only a digital one, that can help us too.
If you have or buy a test light, and know how to use it, fine. Just in case you don't, the way you usually use a test light is to clip the black lead onto a known good grounded point - and this can be tricky. Grounds you can trust are: The battery negative post, the engine block if you can find clean bare metal to clamp onto, the carburetor housing, the fuel lines if they are steel and bolted to the carburetor or fuel pump. Once the black lead is grounded, test your test light by putting the probe onto the "+" terminal of your battery - just to get familiar with how bright the bulb is, and to verify that the test light is working (always test it this way when you use it - often they get dropped and quit on you - which can waste hours of testing time by giving you the wrong answer).
With the meter, select the setting for "+ DC volts" and a range maximum of 15 volts or higher - meters vary but you will find a range setting for 25 volts or something like that - anything above 15 volts is fine.
When you have the test light or meter ready to use, perform the following test:
Turn on the key, and check for 12 volts at the "+" terminal of the ignition coil. There will be one of three results, A, B or C - stay with me now.
A: If the test light seems to be the same brightness as it shows when you use it to check from the battery "-" post to the "+" post, (or if you are using a voltmeter, you read somewhere around 12.5 volts), you know you have full voltage there. That means the ignition wiring is OK, and your ballast resistor is working right. It also means your points are not making contact - which may or may not be a problem - stay tuned!
B: If you notice that the test light seems dim (or if you are using a meter, if the voltage is way less than 12 volts - say 6 volts or so), we know there is good connection to the distributor, and that the points are making contact. This is a good sign, but we're not home yet.
C: If you don't see any reaction at all to the test light (no light, or less than 1 volt on a voltmeter), we've found part of the problem.
If C is the result, I won't take you any further down this road now, just report it to me and we'll figure out what to do next.
If you got result A or B, stay with me here:
OK: back to the above test results. If you got result "A", turn the KEY OFF!! and then try to engine over (by hand if you can, by pulling on the fan belts), or with a wrench on the big nut in the center of the crankshaft pulley. Turn the crankshaft as close to 30 degrees of rotation as you can eyeball, (this is not critical.) Now, turn the key back on and re-do the test. If you still get "A", your points are not drawing current, and this IS a problem.
Next, turn the key off and inspect the wiring from the "-" terminal of the COIL to the side terminal on the distributor. Probably it is damaged, or has fallen off at one end or the other of the wire, but if you don't find the problem there, take the distributor cap and rotor off and inspect inside the distributor - make sure the points are properly installed and connected, and that they are set to the right gap. To do that, rotate the crankshaft so that the point set's rubbing block is stopped on one of the 8 peaks of the rotor cam, this will maximize the gap, then just eyeball the gap - it should be about as wide as the thickness of a fingernail, maybe a little less. If it passes this test, rotate the crank further until the gap closes (the rubbing block is exactly between two of the peaks of the rotor cam).
Now, repeat the test. If you still get result A, either the wire from the coil to the distributor "-" terminal is bad, or we missed something. If you now get result B, the problem has gone away and the car should now run. Investigate further, though, to see what changed - because now the points ARE drawing current. Check for a loose wire (the same one we checked a minute ago) and if you cannot find anything wrong visually, that wire may be intermittent (wires can do that - the copper breaks inside the insulation and you can't see it visually), so replace that wire with a new one and you should be good to go.
Back to the original test results - if you got result B, your points are drawing current, which is good, but they may not be opening due to a wrong gap setting or one of the 3 problems listed below, so in that case, do the inside the distributor cap inspection exactly as you read about above - see why the points are not opening, or if they are opening visually, repeat the test to see if you now get result A. If you do, something has moved or changed, and now the car should run. Of course, whatever caused the points to not open before is still lurking, so we'll have to think of what could cause this - the only things I can think of are:
1. A stray piece of metal bridging the gap, which has suddenly decided to disappear.
2. A very loose point mounting screw could do this, I guess. or
3. A defective or incorrectly installed condenser could be shorting the connection to ground.
Just look around in there and get back to me with a "follow up" question, maybe I'll see something we missed.
I'll stop typing now, my fingers are getting sore - and wait to hear back from you.
Dick
