ignition
 

I was wondering when I shut of my 39 ford but fail to turn of the key will I burn out my points?

Re: ignition
 

The key only enables the ignition switch to turn on or off.

Re: ignition
 

The key doesn´t do anything to the electric system...it´s only for anti theft.
It´s the switch that left on will harm your ignition.

Re: ignition
 

The chances are likely around 50/50 that the distributor breaker points will be in the closed position when the engine stops. If the flip switch is left on when this happens, the coil will just set there as an electro magnet until either it's fried or the battery is dead or both.

As was mentioned, the key just locks the switch in the off position and arrests the steering movement.

Re: ignition
 

The usual result of failing to get the ignition turned off is a cooked coil. That is why a battery disconnect switch is a very good idea. It usually happens if the engine dies when parking. Double checking the switch is a very good habit. I found that out long ago even before my old memory bank started to fail.

Re: ignition
 

thanks for all the information

Re: ignition
 

"The chances are likely around 50/50 that the distributor breaker points will be in the closed position when the engine stops."

Actually quite a bit worse. If the dwell is correctly set at 36, the points will be closed for 36 of 45 degrees for each cylinder firing. That's 36:9.

... or 4 chances out of 5 that the points are going to be closed.

Sorry to nitpick but it's important to know the risk of being careless.

Edit per later post:
"And engine tends to stop on compression strokes and the points are open near there."

A V8 flathead engine is always "on compression" ... it's NEVER without pistons on a compression stroke. Have no idea how this applies to whether the points are open or closed on shut down.

If someone wants to explore this, start and stop your engine a significant number of times and record the position of the points each time.

Re: ignition
 

And engine tends to stop on compression strokes and the points are open near there. I don't know if a person could ever really calculate for that kind of chaos.

Murphy's law would be more inclined to guarantee that they would be closed on that day that you forget and leave the switch on.

Re: ignition
 

No!!!