No spark, Help please?

[tee jay]

Need help with no spark issue.
79 Scout II, 345, Holley dist w/points

pulled Scout in garage was idleing then died.
No spark,
dist cap cracked, new cap ,no spark
change points, 0.16 gap, and condensor, no spark
change coil,no spark
changed resistor, no spark
12 volts at + side of coil
12 volts at - side of coil but ,test light does not pulse when cranking engine.
I guess the distributor is turning because everytime I crank it its in a different position.
Change coil wire, no spark

am I missing something here?

 

[Robert Kenney]

12 volts at - side of coil but ,test light does not pulse when cranking engine.

Test light between ground and the - coil term or + and - term?

If you are testing between the - term and ground you should see the pulse if not the points are not closing .

Connecting the other way (+ to -) and no pulse, you will have points that are not opening.

 

[tee jay]

I will check that again, I was pretty sure they were closing and opening? On your instructions, do you mean to put the test light ground on the coil or on any ground?

 

[Robert Kenney]

It is one thing to be moving open and closed but an entire other thing to be making contact. Make sure the ground strap from the point plate to the body is sound. Also see that the point pass through terminal is good and tight.

I assume your test light has a lead and a point on the end of the handle. Place the point on one test place and the lead wire end on the other test place.

By ground I mean a good body/engine place that would otherwise be ground. Even the dizzy body will do.

+ and - are the terminals on the coil.

 

[tee jay]

Well, that was weird? Checked all grounds in the dist,good, even changed points again, still no spark. Knew everything else was good on the outside so I jerked out the dist and put in a reman and vroooom fired right up? Amazing! Thanks for your helping hand in this matter, Robert.

 

[Robert Kenney]

I'm happy we could be of some help. Glad it is running again. Must be an open it the point to ground circuit.

I've also seen dizzys installed and clamped that were not grounded to the block. Go figure. Must be murphy playing games again.

 

[tee jay]

I thought about the dist clamp myself, it was pretty cruddy May have been losing ground while cranking? Oh well, now I know its right and the old dist had 138,000 miles on it anyways.I never really noticed that it was running bad before but a new dist made a big difference. Another binder back on the road.