QuestionHi Dick, We I hooked my meter to the + side of the coil and I got 12.12v with the key on. Then I hooked the meter to the - side and got 22v also with the key on.
AnswerI'll assume the 22 volts is a typo and you meant to say 12 volts.
OK, the ballast is OK, and the wiring is OK, the problem is probably inside the distributor.
Turn OFF the key before doing the following:
1. It could be that your points are not closed because the engine happened to stop with the points open. Take the distributor cap off and just look at the points (don't touch them yet!) - are they touching each other?
2. Before you do anything more, make sure the points ARE touching each other. If they are not, bump the starter or pull the engine around by hand by pulling on a belt, or with a wrench on the crank pulley so that you can see that the points are definitely closed. Don't touch the points yet - you may disturb something before we identify the cause of your problem, and make it harder to track down.
3. Now, turn the key back on again and check those same two voltages. You may see the same thing, or you may see a lower voltage on the + terminal, and close to ground on the - terminal. Either way, we have learned something.
4. If you see the same result, namely approximately 12 volts on both terminals of the coil, the points are not making contact with each other, probably due to a buildup of oxide, or else or there is a break in the wiring somewhere between the - terminal of the coil and the movable contact of the point set.
5. To learn which is your problem, very carefully, without putting any force at all on the movable contact point, lightly touch your voltmeter probe to the movable contact point's movable arm - if you see 12 volts there, your wiring is OK, and your points are definitely not making contact due to contamination of some sort. You can temporarily fix this by cleaning the contacting surfaces with some fine sandpaper, just to verify that you have found the cause, but you should replace the points and condenser with new parts soon, because this problem will recur if you don't.
6. If, in the above check, you did NOT see 12 volts on the movable point arm, next check on the side terminal of the distributor. If there is 12 volts there but not on the point arm, the wire inside the distributor is disconnected or broken inside the insulation.
If you do NOT find 12 volts on the side terminal of the distributor, the wire from the - terminal of the coil to the distributor has fallen off or is broken inside the insulation, or is dirty on one end or the other. For one of those reasons, it is not making contact.
7. Back to step # 3: If when you turned the key back on and rechecked the two voltages you did NOT see the same result but rather the lower voltage on the + terminal and close to ground on the - terminal, the points have somehow made contact now - this is typical for dirty or oxidized points - they will sometimes come back to life just because you are poking around them - but I feel certain that the problem is in your point set and not the wiring - so replace the points and condenser with new parts and I'm 90% confident your problems are over.
If not, we've eliminated the by far most likely cause, and we'll keep going until we get it running again.
I'm sorry this is so tedious (both for me and you!) but the only way to track down an intermittent problem is to be very careful not to disturb the evidence until it is proven.
Dick
