The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Voltage Regulator question

'59 with a 235. Stock generator/voltage regulator. Need some help. I installed a firewall mounted master cylinder/booster, and ended up having to move the voltage regulator. I touched no other electrical part besides brake light switch. Now it won't start. I have no spark. Almost zero voltage at the coil. As far as I know, the VR has nothing to do with the start circuit. Or am I way off on that? the BAT post on the VR is full battery voltage. The other two posts are the charging circuit, right? I know just enough in this area to be dangerous!

What could kill voltage to the coil other than the ignition switch or resistor? Everything seems fine with the switch. It has full voltage in, and all the stuff that operates off of it works (except of course the ignition circuit). The "in" side f the resistor only shows like 6.5 volts or so. Could that indicate a bad wire from the switch? Like I said, nothing was touched, but things could have been tugged on a bit during the MC install.

Hy guumbah, the resistor could be open, is there any chance that the resistor got bumped severely during the master cylinder/booster installation? The resistor input voltage you mentioned does seem very low, could the wire from the ignition switch to the resistor have been damaged during the master cylinder/booster installation?

It's possible. After some research, it seems you are probably right about one of those things. I have not had a chance to test or replace anything since I posted this, so hopefully this weekend. I have a spare resistor already, and I bought enough wire (in the proper colors!) to replace all the wires. The only thing I don't have is a new ignition switch. I'm going to try jumpering straight from the battery + to the + side of the coil just to bypass everything and try starting it. I know that can burn the points, and that it won't shut off until I yank the jumper, but I will only try it for long enough to see if it turns over. Plus, I also have spare points lying around.

Thanks for the reply!

Just FYI - it turned out to be the wire from the ignition switch to the coil.

I was working on rewiring to swap out to an alternator over the weekend. I pulled the wrap off the leg that goes to the started side, and the green wire to the coil was completely split! I'm lucky the darn thing gave up in the driveway and not on the road somewhere!