Beyond Frustrated - Wont start/stay running

OK if you have dwell MOST of my first post is "cleared." Dwell means the points ARE opening / closing, there is no shorted/ open primary wire, and the condenser is not shorted........but it might not be "good."

SO NOW

1.....We might be losiing power to the coil. This is easy to check.........just take a clip lead and jumper battery power direct to coil POS, then check spark. DANGER!!! DO NOT leave that connected ANY longer than necessary to test or try to start and immediately unhook if not running!!!

2.....Might STILL be a bad (open) condenser. Find another and you can just "clip lead" (alligator) to the neg side of coil!!! You don't have to dig into the dist to test

3....Might be a bad coil. Only thing you can do here is "throw a part" at it. Coil DOES NOT need to be grounded/ mounted. Just "lay" it in somewere and connect, you can even "alligator" clip it if you have enough test / alligator leads!!

TESTING COIL. You need to get a GOOD method for testing for coil spark. Go to the parts store and buy an inline spark tester. I have a Lisle, which is handy (when I can find it) because it's adjustable.

DO NOT trust your coil HT wire. THAT MAY be the whole problem!!! Hook your "test gap" right at the coil tower to ground

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Notes about cranking:

Notice above I mentioned "jumper power to the coil" with an alligator lead. Here's the thing about cranking power to the coil VS "running" power to the coil

RUNNING: Power to the coil goes THROUGH the ballast. This means that part of the circuit can have it's own problems, IE bad ignition switch, bad connection on the dark blue/ run wire through the bulkhead or ballast resistor

CRANKING: The above is powered down and BYPASSED by the brown start bypass circuit. This comes off IGN2 from the ignition switch, brown wire, through the BULKHEAD and to the coil + side of the ballast. THAT circuit could be "bad" ignition switch or bad connection in bulkhead.

BY USING an alligator clip, you eliminate all wiring and the ballast, all you have left is points / condenser/ coil.........and if you are testing spark at the coil.......you have eliminated cap/ rotor/ plug and coil wires

THIS MEANS it is IMPORTANT to check COIL for spark so you can say "WE HAVE SPARK" and THEN worry about the coil wire? is bad? the rotor ? is bad? the cap? the wires? the plugs? LAST