The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 50 chev truck won't start

I have a 50 Chev Truck 3100, 216, 6 volt, all original (and it looks it). It has been running fine for the last 3 years. Suddenly, she died on me while driving. So, I did what every old truck owner does - changed the fuel pump, changed the fuel filter, checked out the fuel lines, drained the junk from the bottom of the tank, thinking it had to be fuel related. When I was all done with this work, I shot a little starting fluid in the carb, and she popped right off, ran for about 4 minutes, and died. Further review showed that I had no spark at the plugs, and no spark out of the coil. So, bought a new coil. Still no spark. I ran a wire from the battery + to the coil +, still no spark. The wires / leads to the dist (+ and -) check out fine. I'm stumped. The points are clean and gapped fine - not that it matters,,,,nothing is getting to them. There is a radio, but I've disconnected it for all of this troubleshooting (I also checked the ignition switch while I was under the dash - it checks out OK). Could be the condensor I guess - doubt if that's my problem because there's no juice getting that far for now, but, can I check that with a meter? I'm really thinking that the new coil must be bad, but when I bench test it (yes, out of the vehicle) the ohms readings are right on. Any ideas from anyone with more expertise than me are greatly appreciated !!

Probably not it, but could low battery voltage be the problem? I had a bad generator on the old Galaxie, and had similar symptoms. All I can think of that you haven't already checked.

Well, I checked the battery (new about 6 weeks ago), and it seems fine with the volt meter. I also put it on the battery charger, and it dropped to 2 amps in about an hour, so I think it's ok ??!!??

I also checked the ground connection to the frame (new grounding strap last year) and there appears to be no shorts.

would start out by just cleaning all the wires from coil over to dist. take the cab off and check the wires inside to make sure that they are not grounding out, had the problem on the 50, the wire to the points was grounding out, like you said you did a hot wire to the coil, but the dist. needs to complete part of the circuit, just my thoughts.

Thanks. I'll double check that first thing on the morning. I did check the insulator post on the dist where the voltage runs through, and it checked out OK, with no grounding / shorting to the dist and common ground. I'll check it again just to be sure ! Can a condensor short out and cause this problem ? No visible burns / damage on the condensor.

a bad condensor can do a lot of different weird things, the man with the real knowledge should chime in later,

I'll be watching. As you can tell, I'm willing to listed to any comments or tips. Never hit the wall like this on this seemingly simple electrical system, and I guess I've sort of overlooked the condensor.

Same thing happened to a friends '37, turns out to be the condenser.

I'm heading out to the parts store for points and a condensor. I'll let you know if any of these new parts are fixing the problem. I'll replace the condensor 1st to see if that little devil was the culprit all along.

New condensor made no difference. However, new points (old ones looked OK) fixed the problem. Should have started there. Oh well, color me stupid,,,,,and happy. She runs real nice now !

Great News! Thanks for following up with us!

There's a quick check for dirty points. Connect a test light between the distributor primary terminal at the coil and ground. As the points open and close, the light should flash on and off. Dirty points that aren't conducting will make the light stay on all the time. A short on the distributor side of the coil, grounded primary wire or condenser lead, etc. will keep the light off, points open or closed. Either way, the result will be no spark.
Jerry