Need help with no spark

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Daves69 said:
Your using a p4120534 chrome box right?

Anyone, for the Neutral Start, can't the lead on the starter relay be jumped similar to a stick. Yeah, it would crank in any position, but just to try and isolate a problem.

Don't know if this hurts or helps. Installation points from the book ...........
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, but I'm confused about the part where it says to check the voltage for ignition terminals #1 and #2 with the ballast resistor disconnected... You can't get voltage to terminal 2 with the ballast disconnected as terminal 1 feeds it...

We did check for voltages with it connected and posted them above...


I also took a complete MP electronic ignition kit out of the box with a new ballast, orange box, and distributor and tested it with no better results...

I found my distributor from the MP kit is off... The rotor is 90° off the slot that drives the distributor gear...


Check this out, the rotors are pointing the same direction, but the slots are 90° off...

DSC05019 B.jpg


Now with the slots pointing the same direction, the rotors are 90° off...

DSC05021 B.jpg


Here's the date from the box...

DSC05023 B.jpg


WTF???
 
Bad Sport said:
Just for giggles, see if you have continuity from the ground strap on the firewall to the negative cable end, pull it off the battery. You should, if those two places are clean grounds, I would think.

I just went out and checked mine, I get a solid beep when checking the firewall ground strap the the battery negative cable (battery end).

This should tell you if you have good grounds.
Click to expand...

I just did and I get a loud constant beep from the negative battery cable to the ground strap on the firewall, and the body of the control box...

It also beeps when I put the probe on both of the ballast terminals and coil terminals... Is that right???
 
krazykuda said:
It also beeps when I put the probe on both of the ballast terminals and coil terminals... Is that right???
Click to expand...

Um...those are Positive connections, are they not? lol

Give me a minute and I will go check mine, that seems off to me.
 
I can't imagine ballast, but you could put a jumper in the sockets and see if something happens. Pull the wires off and put a short piece of wire in the two ends, jumpering (is that a word) them together.
 
Bad Sport said:
Um...those are Positive connections, are they not? lol

Give me a minute and I will go check mine, that seems off to me.
Click to expand...

But some of them may connect to ground after going through some resistance, that's why we see continuity... (maybe???)
 
Bad Sport said:
I can't imagine ballast, but you could put a jumper in the sockets and see if something happens. Pull the wires off and put a short piece of wire in the two ends, jumpering (is that a word) them together.
Click to expand...

What sockets do I jumper? The ballast has the flat terminals, I can use an alligator clip to jump... (If that's what you are referring to...)
 
Could some of this be cause by a bad ignition switch or neutral safety switch?

How can we check them out to verify if they are good or bad? is there a test that we can do for resistance/continuity to rule them out as good or bad???
 
krazykuda said:
What sockets do I jumper? The ballast has the flat terminals
Click to expand...

Yeah, pull them off of the ballast and stick a small piece of wire in each socket creating the connection. I doubt that's it, but at least it will be out of the equation.
 
Bad Sport said:
Yeah, pull them off of the ballast and stick a small piece of wire in each socket creating the connection. I doubt that's it, but at least it will be out of the equation.
Click to expand...

So jump across the two terminals that go to the ballast??

I thought they say not to eliminate the ballast with the stock ignition or you can blow out the control box and/or coil...
 
krazykuda said:
So jump across the two terminals that go to the ballast??

Yes, pull the wires off, use a short jumper wire and push it into each socket creating a connection like the ballast does.

I thought they say not to eliminate the ballast with the stock ignition or you can blow out the control box and/or coil...
Click to expand...

It won't hurt a thing Karl, it's just leaving it that way and driving it that it "might" damage the coil or whatnot. I had to do it once on my 68 Barracuda, and I drove it about 200 miles with no ill effects.

Like I said, I doubt that's it because you said you had voltage on both sides when you checked it, but anything is worth looking at.
 
Bad Sport said:
It won't hurt a thing Karl, it's just leaving it that way and driving it that it "might" damage the coil or whatnot. I had to do it once on my 68 Barracuda, and I drove it about 200 miles with no ill effects.
Click to expand...

Ok, so jump across the ballast resistor and crank it over with the key in the run position and check for spark. Is that what you are saying???
 
krazykuda said:
Ok, so jump across the ballast resistor and crank it over with the key in the run position and check for spark. Is that what you are saying???
Click to expand...

Take the wires off eliminating the ballast, and use a piece of wire in place of the ballast, see if it fires.
 
An underlying problem you have is clear back where I asked you to check some voltages. You have a LOT of voltage drop to the "key side" of the ballast. What this means is, with only 4 or so volts at the coil, IF YOU are cranking the engine by jumpering the start relay, you will get LESS than 4V at the coil.

If you have not done so, try temporarily jumpering right from coil + to battery and see what that does.

In other words you may have two problems---low voltage, and an ignition problem. "May"
 
Bad Sport said:
Take the wires off eliminating the ballast, and use a piece of wire in place of the ballast, see if it fires.
Click to expand...

I just tried it and no spark still at the center coil wire or the spark plug... :BangHead:
 
67Dart273 said:
An underlying problem you have is clear back where I asked you to check some voltages. You have a LOT of voltage drop to the "key side" of the ballast. What this means is, with only 4 or so volts at the coil, IF YOU are cranking the engine by jumpering the start relay, you will get LESS than 4V at the coil.

If you have not done so, try temporarily jumpering right from coil + to battery and see what that does.

In other words you may have two problems---low voltage, and an ignition problem. "May"
Click to expand...

So jump from the coil + to the battery + and crank it over???
 
Bad Sport said:
I suggested that, I don't know if he tried it or not, I'm going with not, lol.
Click to expand...

I just tried it and still no spark at plug or coil center wire. It did crank a little faster than usual....
 
67Dart273 said:
An underlying problem you have is clear back where I asked you to check some voltages. You have a LOT of voltage drop to the "key side" of the ballast. What this means is, with only 4 or so volts at the coil, IF YOU are cranking the engine by jumpering the start relay, you will get LESS than 4V at the coil.

If you have not done so, try temporarily jumpering right from coil + to battery and see what that does.

In other words you may have two problems---low voltage, and an ignition problem. "May"
Click to expand...

Since my voltages were lower than what you said they should be, is there something wrong?
 
You have a points dizzy around?
It's gotta be ignition fault or key switch
My 2 cents.
 
I just checked mine. Twice.
For step 15. Control box disconnected. Disconnected one side of ballast (twin drk blu), connected Fluke to lead. 12V in "run" position, no voltage in "start" position. Disconnected the other side (drk blu and brn) connected meter 12V in "start", no voltage in "run".
It runs.
 
Daves69 said:
I just checked mine. Twice.
For step 15. Control box disconnected. Disconnected one side of ballast (twin drk blu), connected Fluke to lead. 12V in "run" position, no voltage in "start" position. Disconnected the other side (drk blu and brn) connected meter 12V in "start", no voltage in "run".
It runs.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will try that later when I can round up a helper to crank the key for me...
 
Karl, I think you need to re-do your grounding. The low voltages is a tell-tale sign.

You can have continuity but still have poor current capacity. In other words, you need to clean off the contact surfaces where the ground strap is bolted as well as the other ground points.

And I'm not sure the intake is the best place to ground. Remember, what the ground strap is really for is the starter and it's bolted to the block. The intake is bolted to the heads so the current has to go through the bolts only since there are gaskets everywhere. Normally, a torqued bolt only holds by the first 1.5 thread turns. With a little grease or thread lock, the conductance can be severely diminished.

If I were you, I'd go over all the grounding surfaces and clean off the paint and apply some copper paste. If you still want the ground strap to connect to the intake, I'm afraid the paint will have to come off.

Also, I don't really see the point in having two connections to chassis. The 10Ga is either redundant OR it is the best connection to ground in which case it is insufficient which will cause low voltages everywhere, especially when cranking.
 
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