No Spark?

[jadsrunner]

Where do I start? I have all new, or at least what use to be new wiring harnesses on my RR. I have gone through the schematics a million times and know everything is hooked correctly. When I first started running the car I could never get a spark. I burnt the points the very first time. After I would buy a new set I would never get a spark and continually adjust them until finally after adjusting them for a while I would get nothing but smoke out of the distributor. So after my third set of points I went to an Accel Points Eliminator kit.

Guess what still no Spark, I chased everything with a multimeter etc. I would motor the engine holding the plugs to the block and still no spark. I have 11.58-12 Volts on the + of the coil (key on) and the coil is hooked up correctly. So I connected a spark plug wire directly to the coil and a plug in that and held the plug to the engine, still no spark!

I got a new coil and did the same, nothing! So finally I ran a wire directly from the positive side of the battery terminal to the + side of the coil and ran a wire and plug directly out of the coil. grounding the threads of the plug to the engine and looking for a spark as I motor the starter and still no spark!

I can't figure out where to go from here. I started to look into maybe a grounding problem but it doesn't seem to be the case the - side of the coil is grounded to the engine. And I have the - side of the battery terminal grounded to the engine and chassis.

Anyone got any ideas?

I still love my Mopar!

 

[Meep-Meep]

Here are the basics of how the coil works. In order to get a spark you must hook up power to the plus and minus terminal then disconnect the negative wire. At that very moment a single spark will jump from the high voltage tower to ground. This is exactly what the points do; they are just a switch to ground. In reality you can disconnect either wire to get a spark but most of the automotive world switches the negative. You will of course have this rigged up so you don't get zapped.

There is also a ballast resistor that acts as a current limiter in the primary circuit and if broken will not pass any voltage through it (usual failure) so if you have voltage at the coil and the factory wiring is good and hooked up correctly you probably don't need to worry about it - yet.

With points there is a condenser (round metal can next to points) and when those go bad you can either burn up points or the car will run like crap. Since the points are constantly making and breaking an electrical connection the condenser is used to take the voltage spikes out of the circuit when the points open.

Smoking points is not a good sign. That might indicate to much current is passing through that circuit or lack of a ballast resistor. What coil are you using? And are you using a ballast resistor that is recommended with the coil?

Using an electronic triggering device still has a max current rating and can be damaged if the wrong coil is used. The lower the resistance in a circuit the higher the current flow and all components need to match the demand. The outside of the coil does not need to be grounded. Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[Coronet 500]

Key ON no starter should be approx 9v coming from ballast resistor to coil.Key START starter turning should be 12v from start relay to coil. I'd check relay, and check voltage to ground at both ballast terminals.Same as battery one side, less the side going to coil, key on.

 

[jadsrunner]

Guys, thanks for the advice. No joke the minute I posted this I ran into a you tube video which showed how to test the coil using the negative coil wire, grounding it and then removing it from the engine block. I DID SEE a SPARK! I was like the mad scientist who saw frankensteins hand move! It was a good sign of relief because I know now for a fact the wiring is correct and the coil is bad. But I did figure some things out.
Prior to threading this I had my negative battery terminal grounded to the chassis and the other to a steel bolt that ran through the water pump which held the power steering bracket. I realized that this was not making a ground to the engine and I am pretty sure thats how I burnt my points. I now have an ACCEL POINTS eliminator and I know that everything is correctly hooked up. I am getting a ground succsesfuly I also used the coil test and saw the spark. Knowing that the coil works and the voltage to the POS terminal is correct I did a test on the points eliminator. I did what ACCEL said and put a credit card between the "beam" acting like the shutter. I put a voltmeter to the neg side of the coil and read 11.45 VDC. Upon removing the card there was no change. That being said I called ACCEL and they said the module was defective. I don't doubt that I could have destroyed it seeing how I burnt points when the engine was not properly grounded. Thanks for your help! I plan to get a new module here soon and will let you know if I get the baby cranking.