The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay starting problems

im having trouble getting my truck started and this is what i have come up with so far:

the engine turns

we checked for spark at the plugs, by holding it the the engine and there doesnt seem to be any

took off the distributor cap and the middle 'thing' spins, and there is little spark at the 'thing' that bounces in the distributor, when the key is turned (very sorry for lack of discription, i am very new to this being 15)

is the wiring bad? why am i not getting spark?

thanks to any help, if its possible

Ok, if a 13 year old can understand this(which I'm only 13) you can. The "middle thing that spins" is the rotor. The thing that "bounces inside the distributor" I'm guessing from your description is the points. If those are sparking then you know that the points and the condenser(little can on the other side of the distributor) are good. So, if all of that is good, inspect your sparkplug wires and make sure that the order of them connecting to the cap is right. Also inspect your distributor cap for burns or having oil on the contacts. If the order of the sparkplug wires, the distributor cap, and the sparkplug wires themselves check out ok then get a new coil.

***** Before getting a new coil you can do a test to see if it is good, providing that the coil wire is good. Disconnect the coil wire(wire coming from the coil going to the middle of the distributor cap) from the distributor cap and, holding the metal end(with the dust boot pulled back) CLOSE(not ON!) metal, as long as it is clean, doesn't really matter if it has paint on it if it is clean, have someone crank the engine over. If it sparks than your coil is good and you have other problems, probably fuel.
Also, what year is your truck? Model? Engine year?(if you know it has been replaced)

Sorry if that is not clear but I did my best. Someone else will chime in.

P.S. I was a lot worse off than you. My engine was stuck, condenser was good but points were bad, coil was new(due to previous owner), but sparkplug wires were completely horribly bad. You're going to learn a lot and hopefully get it started

thanks for the info

well what im wondering is that the truck ran a year or so ago, so what could have gone bad?

we pulled the spark plug wires, and cranked the engine and held the metal end close to metal but no spark showed. im guessing then the spark plug wires are no good, since there IS spark in the points?


maybe its the ignition coil?? i dont know



the distributor cap is newish,and clean.. the previous owner fixed it all up a few years back before he gave the truck to us. drove it right in and there it sat.

by the way its either a 1942, or 1945 chevy 1 1/2 ton with original engine ( im guessing ) the reason i dont know what year is that it is titled as a '45, but the VIN decoder says its a '42

thank you all for help

I'm not too good about that War period stuff but I believe it was all titled as '42 because the Army didn't make any vehicles for the public. There's a tech tip in the tech tips to see what it is.


If you pulled the wires off of the sparkplugs and held the wire to metal and the sparkplugs were in the engine then your sparkplugs would not be tested then. And if I'm not mistaken they don't go bad like the coil would, about the only way that they'd go bad is if there was a build up of black burnt carbon and what not on the electrode.(end in the engine) So either the sparkplug wires/coil wire is bad or your coil is bad, unless I'm misunderstanding here.

Yes, if there is spark in the points then that is all good and about the only thing that could be bad is your coil or coil wire or sparkplug wires.

the coil must be bad then because the wires are new, just been sitting, un-tampered with
what is the coil wire? the one going from the middle of the distributor cap to the ignition coil?

Yes. And sorry about talking about the sparkplugs up there, I didn't see "sparkplug wires", I just saw sparkplugs. Do you have a coil from something else that you know is good that you could use to see if the engine will fire up? If your truck is still 6 volts then you could use a 12v coil that requires an external resistor, that's what I ended up using. The 6v and 12v coils are about the same, and my truck runs good with the 12v coil.


You're not using the old fuel(depending on how long it sat) are you? That could be a major problem as to why it's not running. Old fuel could tear up the engine, especially if it has rust in it.

no no no

it sat about a year and a half, and there was no gas in it. i checked it out and the tank was dry, so there is new gas in there now.

Yeah, I saw that in your other thread afterwards, sorry about that. Don't want to frustrate you either, just trying to cover all the bases. Well, guess you are going to go and see about a coil, if you can't find any thing go to NAPA, and if nothing there American Classic(I believe that is where you said you'd buy one from?) like you said.

well i was peeping around the starter, coil and distributor, and there is alot of hanging wires. (i dont know if this would change why im not getting spark in the plugs, becuase there is spark at the point)

what is this?? the round thing on top
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2819926020103585286avuTSq

located on top of the starter, is it the polarity reversing switch??im looking at the wiring diagram in my shop manual, and its my best guess,
looks like wires attach, and there is hanging wires( http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2851243860103585286JolsQx ) http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2680969410103585286SGAjwg ) by it that go to the distributor ( http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2377081780103585286POvlTw )

thank you and i hope you can follow my poor discription and pictures...lol

Hmmm, not sure, my starter on the '54 doesn't have that round thing, just the starter switch to the left.(in the picture.) I'll try to find the diagram in the online manuals in the link in the techtips.

Hmmm, not sure, my starter on the '54 doesn't have that round thing, just the starter switch to the left.(in the picture.) I'll try to find the diagram in the online manuals in the link in the techtips.

Hmmm, not sure, my starter on the '54 doesn't have that round thing, just the starter switch to the left.(in the picture.) I'll try to find the diagram in the online manuals in the link in the techtips.

Hmmm, not sure, my starter on the '54 doesn't have that round thing, just the starter switch to the left.(in the picture.) I'll try to find the diagram in the online manuals in the link in the techtips.

I can't tell on the diagram online, and I don't have THAT manual, just mine, so hopefully someone else can help.(It's strange no one else has said anything here.)

bmxinvasion,

Some of us might be a little wary of trying to offer help with a system that uses a polarity reversing switch (I think it was last used in '47 or '48).

Maybe someone with first-hand experience will chime in with some helpful advice.

Good luck,
Tim

Here is a diagram of a polarity reversing switch. The actual wiring is very straightforward...more so than the theory.

Unless this is a restoration, removing this dinosaur would be your best bet. It's so simple even a 13 year old could do it.

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/electrical/wiring/pdf/42truck.pdf

Stuart

You mean removing the switch, right? And the link doesn't work, at least for me.