QuestionQUESTION: Hi Dick, I hope you had a wonderful vacation. I have followed all your directions you have given me in the past and after 20 years the 66 T-Bird fired right up. However, 2 days later I was not and am still not able to get her running again. I have tested the coil and it is fine, but I get no spark from it. I have tested the 12v wire going to the + side of the coil and that is fine (reads 12v)with ignition on and cranking. If I test the - wire with the ignition on (but not cranking) I get nothing on the volt meter. I have been trying to figure this out for weeks now and I desperately need your help once again. I have even installed a new coil.
ANSWER: I'm guessing that what has happened is that your ballast resistance has failed or become disconnected. Your car has a resistance incorporated in the wire that leads from your ignition switch "I" terminal to the coil + terminal, but that ballast resistor is bypassed while you are running the starter motor, by a separate wire that comes from the starter solenoid to the coil.
To test this hypothesis, temporarily add a new wire from the battery + terminal to the coil + terminal, using any piece of wire that is long enough to reach. There will probably be a spark as you make the connection, but this is normal, and it won't hurt you. Make the connection in such a way that you can easily remove it, because if the engine now starts normally (which I believe it will, if I have guessed what the problem is), you will be unable to turn the engine off until you remove that added wire.
If that is what happens, you are going to have to track down that ballast, which can be quite difficult. If you have the shop manual for your car (I hope you do) it will tell you where it is - it is probably incorporated in the wiring harness from the ignition switch to the coil, but it may be replaced by a separate ballast resistor wired in series with a new plain wire from the "I" terminal of the ignition switch to the coil. This is probably the most sensible way to repair this problem.
Just to avoid an unneccessary expense, though, slither under your dash board with some close focus glasses on and a good flashlight and carefully inspect the wire connections at the back of your ignition switch. Find the "I" terminal and verify that the wire on there is well connected and in good shape. If it is, use your meter to verify that there is 12 volts on that terminal when the key is in the "ON" position. If there is 12 volts there but not on the + terminal of the coil, you have proven that the problem is as I suspect - replace the ballast and you'll be on the road again.
Re: The "vacation" was actually for medical reasons - but I'm back on duty, at least for a while. But I appreciate the good thoughts, and thank you for the kind words!
Dick
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QUESTION: Well that didn't work. I put the wire from the + battery to + coil without the original wire and nothing. I then added the original wire to the + coil and the voltage regulator began to click. I did order a new ballast anyway. Am I doing something wrong?
ANSWER: No, you did what I suggested - I don't understand why the voltage regulator would have started clicking - but that is a bad sign. After all, what you did produced the same situation as the normal situation (if your ballast is good) when you simply turned the ignition key on, unless you somehow touched the wrong terminal. By the + terminal on the coil, I meant the wire that comes from the ignition switch, not the one that goes to the side of the distributor, which is the - terminal of the coil.
Did you get a spark when you connected the wire? Was the ignition key on? Are you certain you were connecting to the + terminal of the battery, not the - terminal? I'm bewildered by this result - something isn't right here.
When you say "without the original wire", do you mean that you took the original wire off the + terminal and just left it hanging loose? That should not have caused any problem, whether or not you took it off, and the car should have started normally either way also. Did you try to start it either time?
Let's stay in touch until it all makes sense - tell me as much as you can about what you did and what happened.
Dick
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QUESTION: First I removed the wire from the + side of the coil and let it hang and replaced it with a long piece of wire that reached from the + side of the coil to the + terminal of the battery. I had my assistant (son) try to start her up and got nothing. I then placed the original wire on top of the "spliced" wire and thats when the regualtor began to click. The spliced wire sparked when I hooked it to the battery. I tried to start the car each time and nothing. When I say the regulator started to click, I mean that each time I touched the battery it clicked.
AnswerOK, now I understand. What you heard was probably not the voltage regulator - more likely it was the power window relay, which would be normal when the original wire was in contact. Do you hear just one initial "click" as you make contact, or does it continue to click all by it self when the wire is connected?
Did you feel the regulator to see if that is what was clicking? You can tell when a relay or regulator is clicking from the vibration when it clicks.
I think we may be barking up the wrong tree here, since the car didn't start with known 12 volts on the coil.
Next step, since you have a meter, is to put the meter on the - terminal of the coil, with the key on (forget the added wire for now). If you see 12 volts there and also on the + terminal or if you see the same but lower voltage on the two terminals of the coil, we learn something useful, namely that the problem is probably inside the distributor.
Since there are many divergent threads to follow now, let's confirm the above before I spend an hour typing about things that don't matter! I'll check in here a couple of times during the day - so maybe we can get to the bottom of this quickly. I wish you were close enough to just go see the car! (I'm in the high desert west of Palm Springs CA).
Dick
