The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay spark everywhere but plugs? HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a 59 235 6 with 12 volt sys.I have a good spark at the coil.The new points show a good arc.For some reason i get no spark at the plugs with a new cap n rotor.Any ideas?

Shorted rotor

Broken or missing center contact in cap

Test is faulty, test spark plug not grounded

Bad spark plug wires

Could the cap be too tall?

The cap is new and the plug wires were replaced a couple years ago.Another new rotor will be here tomorow.Ive even put the plug agains the engine where the ground wire is conected with my finger on the end of the plug and touching ground and not a tingle.

I belive it ran with the cap thats on but ill check the cap hight tomorrow.

Make sure the rotor didn't crack when you put it on. If it did then the spark will jump straight to the distributor shaft.

Remove wires from dizzy cap and see if you get snap from dizzy sockets to ground with a test wire. If not: cap, rotor, ground wire loose, weak condenser, weak coil. I'm thinking you don't have enough spark. Too weak to continue to plugs. Hope your battery has good ground to motor.
Good spark at the coil? It should snap mega volts!!! It's always good to observe rotor with cap off to see that rotor is present, on the notch and actually turning.
The important part is that you did not give us the recent history. Was it running before you gave it a "tune up"? Did it just not start one day and you replaced some parts. What is the first thing that happened? Start all over with your double check. Follow the bright white spark at every connection until no spark.

The vehicle was parked a couple years ago.It had spark at the coil but im not sure at the plugs.I had a mechanic friend look at it and was told it was probably the timing chain.I drained the oil lowerd the pan,removed the timing cover to find out the timeing marks were right on.I recently pulled the motor to replace the gaskets,clean and repaint it and reinstalled it.Iput on a new ground cable new points,a new dis cap.The cap was replaced be fore i parked it but because napa orderd a distributor cap and not a rotor cap ,thats new too.Tomorow ill try a new rotor..I just tryed again with the same resuls.A bright orange spark from the coil that arks a good inch from ground,and sparks a plug.Iget a good blue ark across the points.Istill get no spark out of the dissy cap with known good plugwires.

Orange no good: White with blueish is strong. Orange indicates weak spark, but I can't see it from here so..........
As far as timing goes, you don't have to look at the gears. You still need to confirm timing from cam to rotor (the complete timing system). The marks can be right on and something else is messed up. Gotta do the procedure to check. Take center wire off coil, Pull all plugs, put a Kleenex in no. 1 plug hole medium tight, rotate engine by hand till Kleenex blows out hard (TDC of compression stroke), turn engine a little more till balancer mark is at timing pointer zero. Take off dizzy cap, see if rotor is pointing at no. 1 tower or real near. You may have several things wrong at once. Start with proper timing and good battery and proceed down the line. If you can hold your thumb over the hole and turn engine at the same time you are a better man than me or you have friends. I use a Kleenex.

Remove the distributor and coil from the truck. Lay it on the bench and wire it up to the a battery.

Put a spark plug on one plug wire and ground the plug.

Rotate the dist. gear by hand. The plug should fire once per revolution. If it does check the rest of the plug wires.

If it doesn't, plug the wire into the top of the coil.
Rotate the gear and the plug should fire 6 times per revolution. If it does, the only things involved in the problem are the cap and rotor.

The contact on the center of the cap has to touch the top of the rotor. The rotor has to reach the plug wire contacts. Rotor can't be shorted and has to lock into the notch on the shaft. The cap can't have a conductive path from the center terminal to ground.

It is that simple.

I had the same symptoms on my truck a couple of weeks ago. A buddy of mine cleaned the points (again) and I bent the rotor to make sure it would contact the center of the cap. It might have been the points but I think it was bending the rotor that fixed it. If the points had been the problem, it shouldn't have sparked at the coil wire. I could be wrong but that is my story and I am sticking to it.

And the winner is...rotor.I didnt say rotor cap because when i orderd a rotor cap from napa i got a distributor cap.The guy that took the order said ,yiu orderd a cap not a rotor.I took the cap and got the rotor today.Igrounded a plug ,cranked it over and got zapped.Ifound t.d.c.on number 1 and replaced the wires.It took a while but got to hear it run on its own for the first time since 09.The mechanic that said it was everything from bad body ground to it needed a balist resistor and the one that made it sit so long,jumped timing chain,had the wrong rotor on it.Im off to get a new fan belt so i can run it longer tha 30 seconds.Ill let you know how it gos.THANKS..Ron

I'm not sure what you said but...congratulations? I think? First you said "no spark with NEW CAP N ROTOR"????? So...... is this another new rotor? I guess by now you know there is no such thing as a rotor cap,..... or sky hook, or Johnson rod or....

New rotor.... YEAH!!!!

Just be sure the cap and rotor are the same height. Tall cap/short rotor- - - -no spark at the plugs! Yes, the rotors will interchange!
Jerry

Having worked for several years in the parts store I've heard the rotor called just about everything. "Rotor cap" Rotor Button" "Distributor Button" "Doohickey under the thingamajig" (Yes, that's what they said).

You do your best to figure out what some folks are talking about and see if your guess is right.

I belive the origininal problem with intermitent spark was caused by the points.Instead of arcing across the points it was arcingdown to ground.The cap was good but replaced due to partstore sending a cap instead of a rotor.Got a new rotor the next day and found that a short rotor was on when it should have been a long one.Its now purring like a kitten and im thrilled to have driven it back in the garage and not pushed it in.Thanks to the bolt for puting me on the right path.Ron