Tom Bradley
| Joined: | 07-15-2013 |
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| Posts: | 200 |
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Electronic ignition is a nice upgrade, but is not necessarily a solution. Your car should at least fire up with the old-fashioned points. Do you have a voltmeter? You can measure the voltage at the coil plug that is connected to the points. When the points are closed this voltage should be 0.3V or less. If it is higher than this there is a bad connection somewhere, most likely the points, but it could also be a poor electrical connection somewhere else along the line. There could be a bad connection in the wiring going to the distributor or the flex wire connecting between the points and the body of the distributor could have become frayed or loose. If the problem is one of these things then installing an electronic ignition may still have the same problem and leave you even more frustrated.
That you got a spark with an external plug is good, but it takes more voltage to get a spark to jump across a gap with the high pressures existing inside the cylinder. So checking that you have a good connection is something that you really should do no matter what you end up doing. Also, some DMM's also can measure capacitance, which will allow you to check whether the condenser is good or not.
I know how frustrating solving problems like these are, especially for someone new. I have been there. But it is also a nice feeling when you can get the problem fixed yourself.
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