The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 56 chevy ignition problem

My brother-in-law's 56 Chevy pick-up stopped running and I have never seen this issue before. It does not have spark at the plug wires so we pulled off the distributor cap and ran a wire from the ground to the center electrode of the distributor that is fed from the coil. He cranked the engine over and no spark until he stopped the engine from cranking then there was a single noticeable spark. I have never seen an engine make a spark only when you stop cranking the engine.

Has anyone experienced this or know what is going on??

Monitor the battery voltage while cranking. The starter is likely sucking the voltage down to the point where the coil can't fire.

Likely a dirty battery connection.

Seems like a bad ignition switch. Hot wire the coil to see if you get spark.

Sounds like the points are not opening & closing. Turn the engine over with the cap off. The points should open & close as each lobe on the shaft opens the points. Each time they open you should get a spark from the coil.

George

It has electronic points. He said they were new(er)

Ok, we need some clarification before we can proceed further. What engine does he have? You say it has “electronic points”, however there is no such thing. Do you mean it has an electronic ignition conversion such as Pertronix? HEI ignition from a later GM? We need to know exactly what y’all are working on. Help us help you!

Another question is this a V-8 truck or a 6 cylinder truck? Makes a difference in how the ballast resistor and coil are wired. Make sure the coil is getting battery voltage while the engine is being cranked. On a V-8 the starter has a terminal to provide battery voltage to the coil while the engine is cranked, and the six cylinder engine stomp starter switch should also have a small terminal that provides battery voltage while it is being cranked.

I see another long post of suggestions BEFORE the problem is defined. From just using some sort of experiment wire. No background asked. No starting at basics. No answers that mean anything. Everyone needs to backup and find out if there is any visual spark across a spark plug gap and explain how to do that test. Ask what has been done lately. Who installed what and when. What "wiring" has been done. When was the last time it ran. Helping someone is an art. Firing off answers and suggestions is way to early. This person like many others does not know the correct terminology may not be "up" on automotive electrical. We must start with care and be very basic until we see what the experience and knowledge of the person is. One little test at a time. Squeezing some info from them along the way. Especially with not dealing with the actual person with the issue.
We must pretend that this person said: "My brother in laws truck won't fire" what should we do?

I do agree with some helpers saying that after 4 days we don't even know what motor it is, what "electronic points " means and what the truck motor does or does not do.
Back up and start over.

Colton: Give us all the info about the motor, what mods have been done and what is the issue. No fire, no start, no crank, some fire, sputter, turns over but does not start, backfires....... be specific, careful and remember we are not there to see, hear, smell, test...all we have are your words. We, together, will get the motor started. I see with all your posts that you know what you are doing but it's best to approach in a systematic, methodical way. I know it's hard for you doing a tag team, relay method with you as the middle man.

OK.. I will ask my brother in law and let you guys know..

if it's got points replace the condenser, If it is some kind of electronic trigger probably needs a module.