The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Points ingnition troubleshooting

I'm probably going about this wrong, since I don't know much about how points ignition works, so I need a little direction from you guys with my trouble shooting.

Vehicle:
1969 T50 with a 292

The coil on it was pulled from another running truck, so it's good.

On the other other truck ('73 step van with a 292), I could see 12 volts on my meter when the key was on and my leads were on the positive and negative posts of the coil, so I thought I would be able to see the same thing on the T50.

On the T50 with the key on, I can see 12 volts on my meter if I ground to the frame or engine, but not the negative post on the coil (I tried multiple positions because I didn't know if the points being open or shut would effect the reading).

Is this indicative of points and condenser failure?

The screws on the distributor cap on the '73 were so rusted and boogered up that I couldn't remove the cap to play around with my functioning motor to assist with my troubleshooting.

I read some a thread about putting the coil wire close to the engine block and using a screwdriver to open and close the points to look for spark at the coil wire, and it sparked nicely, but I don't know how that plays into my troubleshooting

You shouldn't be measuring ACROSS the coil terminals.
The points being open or closed WILL affect the reading because you're essentially measuring coil resistance (which is very small).
If you measure from either coil terminal to ground with the points open, you'll get battery voltage at both. If the points are closed, you'll get a lower voltage reading on the terminal going to the points, which are basically grounding the circuit.

The question is, does it run?

If you did the test in your last sentence, then that means you're getting spark to the distributor cap, but you may not be getting spark to the plugs if the distributor cap has a bunch of crap built up inside it that provides an alternate path to ground other than to the plugs. Maybe the spring on top of the rotor that makes contact with the center of the cap is broken off.

It's always best to start with the problem with the truck, not a question, yet, about troubleshooting.

As Kevin is indicating......do we have........
1. No fire
2. No start
3. No known spark
4. Backfire
5. Runs and dies
6. Stumbles on acceleration
7. History.1 When did it start doing what it's doing and did it ever run ok.
8. History.2 What have you done recently. Parts? "Fixed" something? Wiring? Tuning/timing? Ran it into the lake?
9. Other

Okay, here's the history:
Bought the truck two weeks ago
Was originally a fire truck.
Fire apparatus was already removed when previous owner bought the truck.
Previous owner removed the cab.
I bought the frame for the 292 and the np540 trans and the six nice 8.25x20,00's
Was told it ran and drove when previous owner purchased it.
Battery was dead.
Put a good battery in it.
Engine cranks over
I've got fuel going to the carb, the accelerator pump works (you can see the gas squirt down the carb when throttle is opened quickly)
It won't fire.
The only new looking parts on the motor are the plug wires which look brand new, so I'm guessing the po replaced those or the person who sold it to the po.

On another note, should I have posted this in the electrical forum?

No, your in the right spot. You need to make sure when #1 cylinder is on compression stroke that the distributor rotor is pointing at the #1 plug wire on the distributor cap.

I would pull a spark plug and see if you get spark with it connected to its wire and against a ground. If not, work your way back to the distributor and check the cap, etc.

Yeah, it makes sense to work from the spark plug back. Strangely enough I had a multimeter with me, but nothing to pull a plug with, so I guess I just started trouble shooting backwards. If I get a chance to get out there tomorrow, I'll bring my tools and work from the plugs back