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- Jul 23, 2011
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Make sure your batteries are charged
this tells you your points aren’t properly adjusted or working. When you manually short them out like this you are doing what should happen when the rubbing block opens the points then they close. Likely you have measured the open gap, but they are not closing fully Which shorts to ground and discharges the coil to the distributo.I got a good regular spark from the coil wire by shorting out at the points. Not by turning the engine over.
yes get a dwell meter And check dwell while cranking.I ran a spark plug wire strait to the coil and got a spark also so the wires are good. I should start checking the coil wire with the engine turning over instead of shorting the points??
Because if the points aren’t adjusted properly (electrically opening and closing) it won’t build up energy in the coil and discharge it properly which is what I think u have going on here . Check out this video. look at the gap it jumps at the endSo far each time that I crank the engine I’ve gotten no with flash from my light.
This makes me think the problem is the points, or adjustment of the points.That intermittent spark was the timing light on the coil wire, not a spark.
I got a good regular spark from the coil wire by shorting out at the points.
Be NiceHhmmmm.....dwell meter.....
the cap with the door is not marine, its automotiveExcellent information. I know I need to get a dwell meter. I used to have one but my cap had a door lift and I could adjust with an Allen wrench. The only way to adjust this one is to loosen the screw and move it with a screw driver (as you know). The cap has to be off so the engine can’t be running to set the dwell.
I set them with a feeler gauge at 23, they do close. I have probably caused some confusion since some things did change.
Remember it was running good but was parked for 3 months, nothing changed. I went to crank her up when I realized the plugs did not fire.
Tonight I went out to crank the engine over to make sure the coil was sending power down the wire to the cap. It does. So it appears that the spark does not pass through the rotor to the cap’s wires...
Yes I used a dwell on an old MGB I think it was.the cap with the door is not marine, its automotive
you can still use the dwell meter to dial in the points without the cap and rotor installed. simply because the dwell meter goes across the coil and you can do that while cranking.
So funny, I called several auto parts stores today. They not only didn’t have a Dwell, they reacted like they didn’t know what one is!use a remote start button with the key in the on position.
you can be right there next to the motor, press the remote start button, see the dwell meter and read it, adjust as needed. in/out and done in under 5 minutes.
Dwell is a measurement of the amount of time (expressed in degrees of shaft rotation) the points are oclosed, which is what builds energy in the coil, that discharges when they open. While using a feeler gauge will get you in the ballpark it is subjective because you have to have the points on the crown of the points cam and a feeler gauge is somewhat user dependent, so dwell is much more accurate.Yes I used a dwell on an old MGB I think it was.
Sort of difficult to crank and be inside of the engine compartment simultaneously.
Irregardless, the points close & open at 023 so a dwell is not going to change that (it should crank & fire as is).