The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay points

quick newbie question...

sorry if this is a re-occuring question, but is there supposed to be a gap in the points, becuase mine are sprung tight.

thanks!

Bookmark this page. It is the shop manual for your truck.
It shows .018" here .

wow thanks i appriciate it 54tow

I've had to print some pages and bring 'em out to my truck, too. It's a great resource that Keith Hardy has created.
We should set this out in the front of the shop, so to speak. http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/index.htm

The adjustment is made with the rubbing block on the points on a high point of the cam on the dist shaft. Rotate the engine slightly to get it there.

so it should open and close, but the most it should open to is .018? becuase thats what is going on now.

but with the battery connected i pulled the points apart a few times and it sparked! is it supposed to spark every time they are pulled apart?

Yes, when they pull apart the spark goes through the wire to the coil and "tells" the coil to release its big spark that goes to the rotor in the middle of the distributor and as the rotor passes under the contacts on the distributor cap it releases the coil's spark and the spark travels to the sparkplug. If the points don't spark then the coil doesn't know when to send its spark.

so i took a timing light, and used it to determine that there is spark from the middle wire from the center of the distributor cap, to the coil. when we crank the engine, with it hooked up, the light flashes. but when i test it on the other wires, going to the other plugs, it doesnt flash

what could i do to get the spark to the plugs?? (the wires and cap are brand new)but the plugs are rusty.

i also noticed that the bottom of my coil was hot. is this normal??

There should be a plastic rotor that goes on the end of the dist shaft. It goes around to each term. in the cap & fires the respective plug. You should not leave the switch on when the engine is not running. This can burn the points & overheat the coil.

I think I asked this before, but do the contacts in the distributor cap and on the rotor look good? If all that is fine, then it would be your plug wires, they can go bad after a period of time just setting around, if they are the same set that was on the truck when it sat?

You could see if you could get spark to your plugs by using one from another vehicle. If you take ONE off of the cap and the sparkplug the wire is connected to and put the one off of a vehicle that you know works since it runs on and when you crank the engine a spark arcs to metal(hold the end that goes to the sparkplug close to metal again) then you know that those wires, even though they were new, have gone bad.

its all good now jdl, i got her running!!!!

all we did was pull the tab on top the rotor, so that it would be closer to the cap, and we ended up spinning the cap the other way lol fired right up after a little gas poured into the carb.

thanks for all the good info!!

Glad to hear it's running. Good job bmx.

Sure can remember how that feels to hear it start for the first time, as it was only two or three weeks ago that I got mine running!!! GOOD FOR YOU!!! Just be careful if you end up driving it around the yard.

Looking at the contact on the rotor is something I learned 50 years ago, and one never stops learning because there are so many little things that happen that are not addressed in service manuals.

yeah i hear ya!! this site is such a good source for info!

lol, jdl maybe in a week or two, i need to get the brakes going, then take it for a joy ride!

Yep. 2 out of three lines(two to front, then one to the back two wheels) broke off when I accidentally bumped in to them, so I have a LOT of work to do before I can drive it around faster than 1st gear will allow. Seeing as how your truck is a LOT bigger and heavier than mine, it would be a whole lot harder to stop it just pushing in on the clutch and rolling to a stop.

wow thats pretty bad, good thing they did brake though or else you may have brought it up faster and not be able to stop.

i wish i had a 1/2 ton, dont get me wrong i love the big trucks, but hey, this truck was FREE!!

im halfway looking for a 1/2 ton in the paper, maybe to sell mine and buy it, if i ever find one.

Guess I'm the same way you are, sort of, I want a big truck but I'm not getting rid of mine, too much help getting it home from people here(one person drove 243 miles round trip to get my truck home, and numerous others sent me money and parts) and secondly it is my first vehicle, too much sentimental value.

well what i really want to do is custom make a metal box bed for my truck, since it is the 160" wheel base, and get fenders and make them wider to use with my dual wheels..... so it would look like a 1/2 ton with the bed, only be ALOT bigger...ehh

That's sort of what someone did with the COE. This one.

yeah, lol thats where i got my inspiration from!!

Guess the only difference is that he used two 1/2 ton boxes to make his bed and that yours is a 1945 1 1/2 ton conventional Chevy and his is a 1950 COE GMC. So are you going to keep it pretty much original besides the bed or are you going to "rod" it?

well, i want to keep it pretty much original, but with some modern "perks" like power steering, and front disk brakes. as much as money allows, over the years

BTW i havent driven by truck, its blocked in the drive way. hopefully this next wekk ill get teh brakes going and take it out into wisconson with my dad. are theese trucks hard to steer? im sure its much harder then P/S

Actually, no, mine is not hard to steer once it is moving, it's just at a dead stop that you have to use "muscle" power. I actually think that my truck's manual steering is easier to turn than power steering equipped steering wheels. I have to watch out or I will make too quick of a turn! The reason is the gearing is setup to be much easier to turn. As for the brakes, I'm not sure, but if you aren't taking the engine out and putting in a 350 or something like that, OR swapping out the rearend to comfortably go 60 mph, they should be fine for driving like it is.

okay. i need a new set of points & condencer becuase for some reason i am not longer getting spark to the plugs,(it started a few days ago) and someone told me that we may have burnt up the points/condencer (they were old anyway)

the previous owner left some parts with the truck and there was a new set of points. i took off the old one and tried to put the new ones on, but the base is wayy longer. what can i do to solve this? i was thinking take the top off the new set of points and use the base of the old ones, becuase the holes line up.

or is there a place where i can get original ones?

thanks guys

You should be able to go to NAPA or a flaps(friendly local auto parts store) and get the right ones. If you don't have spark at the points, it's probably the condenser. But they probably need replaced anyway, as you said.

is there a way to check if my sparking problem is in my condenser? there is no spark in the points and they are gapped properly. i just want to make sure im solving the problem and not buying a new condenser when its not needed. thanks

I'm not completely sure about how much they cost but a condenser should not be more than $5.00. I don't think there is a way to check if the condenser is bad but if there is someone should come along and tell you.