Old ford 302 no spark

[nola mike]

The big orange wire comes fe ground side of battery....the cable is wrong color

Then it's wired wrong. That orange wire should go to the battery positive. The small red wire should be on the battery side of the solenoid (I edited my above post which said starter side) and powers your ignition. Where does your battery positive wire go? There shouldn't be a ground wire on the solenoid.

 

[Jakem]

Battery positive goes to left stud on solinoid....that orange wire that is with the other black ones on stud goes to the negative on battery

 

[nola mike]

Well, now I'm thoroughly confused. Your first pic of an orange wire with black wires--that's the starter or something else?
1. Orange wire on your solenoid. Where does it go? And is that the only orange wire?
1a. There's a red wire on that terminal. Where does it go? Is it the only red wire in the pic?
2. Middle terminals look OK.
3. Yellow wire on the solenoid. Where does it go?
4. Battery terminal wires. Where does positive go? Negative?
Do you have multiple of the same color wires? Your wiring is not original, so who knows what's going on here...

 

[Jakem]

That orange wire goes to the ground stud...it is negative off battery its just the wrong color wire...yellow is start terminal next is ignition
.then starter by itself. Those other red wires on the terminal with orange go to that stud as well....it's definitely not original or color coated

 

[Jakem]

The positive terminal goes to far left stud

 

[nola mike]

Please answer each of my questions specifically...Your descriptions haven't been clear, and still aren't to me. There is a fat orange wire and fat yellow wire on the solenoid. That far left terminal on the solenoid (when looking at your pic) is not a ground stud. I'm not sure what pic #1 is of, I thought it was the starter. Starter should only have a yellow wire on it.

 

[Scott06]

That orange wire goes to the ground stud...it is negative off battery its just the wrong color wire...yellow is start terminal next is ignition
.then starter by itself. Those other red wires on the terminal with orange go to that stud as well....it's definitely not original or color coated

Look at the way this is wired up. https://bzerob.com/library/ford/ford-starter-solenoid.html

this shows the two ways the coil gets power, one in run goes through resistance wire

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/485051822370779281/

assuming your solenoid is the same pay attention to grounding of body on solenoid

i susoect you are not taking the power to ignition when key is in start off the i terminal. Also the big ground wire doesn’t go to the solenoid. I think the way you wired it you are effectively crossing terminals. I suspect that goes from solenoid to starter positive terminal

did the solenoid you bought come with wiring digram ? Post that if you can snap a pic

 

[Jakem]

It's all wired up and running..thank you all

 

[Scott06]

It's all wired up and running..thank you all

Don't keep us in suspense, what was it ?

 

[Jakem]

Lol well I'm not really sure for 100%. I rechecked all wiring and connections...re set points and it fired up

 

[alldodge]

re set points

 

[Jakem]

My thoughts as well....I messed with it for a fair bit of time for it to just start working seems odd to me

 

[Scott06]

My thoughts as well....I messed with it for a fair bit of time for it to just start working seems odd to me

Unless there is a LFW, loose effing wire , might check wire from points to negative side of coil for chaffing. Can ground out the points and effectively kill the spark

 

[Jakem]

Now as for dwell...what in your opinions should be good

 

[kenny nunez]

The most accurate way to set the dwell is with the spark plugs out and the coil wire grounded. Spin the engine and adjust the points to 30*, the points are going to look like they are too close but do not worry about it and leave the feeler gauge in the tool box. Put the plugs in and set the timing, usually 6* advanced should do it. Make sure the engine is idling as slow as possible when setting the timing.

 

[Jakem]

The dwell is right at 30 engine idling about 900..1000 rpm...it runs very smooth and no lag when I Crack the throttle

 

[alldodge]

Using an accurate Tach, get the idle down below 800, would be good to see 650

 

[Jakem]

Ok I will fiddle somemore

 

[Scott Danforth]

with points.....

set dwell first
set timing second
set idle speed third

dwell changes with point wear
timing changes with dwell change
idle speed changes with timing changes

This annual adjustment is the only downside to points type ignition

 

[Jakem]

Alright I'm on the ocean right now....boat wont go over 2000 ram and can't get on plane....wth