Question1955 pontiac 8 Won't start. No spark at end of plug wires. Spark at points. What next. Car is kept under cover but outside near Pensacola Fl. Last run 8 weeks ago Ran fine. Engine rebuilt 5 years ago. Thanks
AnswerFirst we need to verify that the problem is ignition. There are two ways to approach this. One is to get some starting fluid (ether in an aerosol can - available at any autoparts store) and have someone crank the engine while you spray a SMALL SQUIRT! of ether into the air intake. If the engine starts even momentarily, then we know the ignition is OK and the problem is in the fuel supply.
If it doesn't even try to catch, then we need to go to step two:
Remove one spark plug from the engine, then plug its wire back onto the spark plug, and ground the spark plug on the intake manifold of the engine in such a way that you can see the plug gap. Again, have someone crank the engine while you watch the plug gap. You should see a spark now. If you don't, your coil or rotor may have failed (very unlikely) or your coil to distributor cap wire has failed, or something else is keeping the high voltage from getting from the coil tower to the spark plug. Moisture inside the distributor cap will also do this, as will moisture on the high voltage terminal of the coil.
Another place to check is to lay the coil high voltage wire on the engine such that the metal center wire is within 1/8 inch or so of the metal of the engine - the spark should easily jump that far, even with a weak battery or coil.
A possible cause of a very weak spark is a bad condensor. If the points and condensor have not been changed in a while, and you cannot get a high voltage spark out of the coil, the problem could be the condensor, but these seldom fail completely - the car might be hard to start, but it should run once started, and there will be some spark at the plug in test #1.
So verify that the problem is spark, then check the above things, and let me know what you find out.
Dick
