Engine losses power as I pull out of driveway

[drumyn29]

I just tested again and it still says 0 from retard to advance with red wire disconnected. Coil ONLY gets hot with red connected.

Does this ohm reading sound right or is my ohm meter not working properly?

[Mitch//pa]

when you touch your ohm meter wires together it should calibrate at 0. not touching it should read infinity..

with the wire hooked up to the coil & point contacts separated ,ignition switch on, the coil should not get hot

[drumyn29]

Originally Posted by Mitch//pa

when you touch your ohm meter wires together it should calibrate at 0. not touching it should read infinity..

with the wire hooked up to the coil & point contacts separated ,ignition switch on, the coil should not get hot

It calibrates at 0.

So I'm guessing the coil is shot?

[Mitch//pa]

your car does start then dies so some of these tests could be showing good at times..
you need to test when its not starting

intermittent things are a little tougher

ck your basics the points insulator mounting, lower plate wire, cable screwed in to far, throw your other coil you have on, possibly faulty new condenser, loose terminal box wires

[Tom Wesenberg]

When the key is ON and the points are OPEN, do you have 6 volts at the movable points contact?

If you have a slant pole coil, be sure the very first thing on each of the two primary slant posts are INSULATING washers, then the flat washer, lock washer and nut. Then the wire terminal and special barrel nut go on last. If the insulating washers are missing, you will have a short.

[P.S.]

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Then again....

Sometimes, you're just better off going with the "shotgun method".

Not long after I bought a worn out Tudor, it developed an intermittent ignition problem similar to yours. I spent days fiddling with this and that and many posts here with people like Tom and Mitch helping. At one point, I finally looked at the situation and thought it would be quicker to just shotgun it, so I replaced the entire distributor, coil and ignition switch, and all associated wires. Problem solved!

I took some flak here for not figuring it out piece by piece, but you get over it pretty quickly when your Model A is purring like a kitten and doesn't fail you.

If anyone gives you flak for shotgunning it, just offer to send them the old parts!

[drumyn29]

oooooooooook…..I'm not sure what exactly happened but here goes.

While connecting the coil I decided to open up top plate and saw that the wire snapped off and was resting on the spring. I feel like from moving advance back and forth for my ohm reading it must have snapped off then.

I soldered my own wire terminal and ran it around the block two times on BOTH coils and neither heated up and the car ran pretty decent without dying.

SOOOOOO, I guess it was the plate the whole time? It sucks because I checked that wire a million times.

I'll order a new plate tomorrow from antique auto ranch along with a new 6 volt coil.

Thank you ALL for so much help on this ordeal.

[Mitch//pa]

glad you found the intermittent culprit. you can also buy just that wire by itself from the suppliers. here is a pic from marcos site of how to bend the terminal so it does not rub the housing..

[Mitch//pa]

it was a pleasure going through some of the tests with you. everyone should have a meter, spark tester and test light...
here is just the wire from snyders

[Mitch//pa]

on post #52 when you moved the advance lever and the resistance picked up to the 200 range i bet that was detecting the broken strands at the wire connector

[H. L. Chauvin]

Just from many past experiences, in post response #44, with your explaining estimated 20 seconds for the engine dying & the engine restarting made that inner pigtail distributor wire appear most suspicious.

FWIW: There is a correct & simple "U" shaped layout method to loop this wire to stop spark change movement stress at the wire connections & avoid future abrasion of this wire's insulation as the top distributor plate is rotated.

Don't forget to discard the "For Sale" sign if you already bought it, & as an electrical expert you can now advise others.

Always something simple; and in the end, after 70 or so responses guess what:

After never giving up, it was "You" who detected your own problem !!!!! Good show.

[Mitch//pa]

Originally Posted by H. L. Chauvin

Just from many past experiences, in post response #44, wwith your explaining estimated 20 seconds for the engine dying & the engine restarting made that inner pigtail distributor wire appear most suspicious.

FWIW: There is a correct & simple "U" shaped layout method to loop this wire to stop spark change movement stress at the wire connections & avoid future abrasion of this wire's insulation as the top distributor plate is rotated.

Don't forget to discard the "For Sale" sign if you already bought it, & as an electrical expert you can now advise others.

Always something simple; and in the end, after 70 or so responses guess what:

After never giving up, it was "You" who detected your own problem !!!!! Good show.

lol

[Tom Wesenberg]

Was the broken wire the correct 100 strands or more wire?

Notice that the terminal has two loops over the wire. The large loop is wrapped over the wire and insulation, while the shorter one is looped over just the bare wire. Use a bit of flux on the end of 60/40 electrical solder and solder just the bare wire end to the terminal. If you get the wire too hot, the solder will flow back along the wire to a point past the terminal, and this will make the wire stiff and more likely to break at that point.

[H. L. Chauvin]

Hi Mitch,

Did not mean to hit your funny bone ....... my error.

In my reply # 71, the #44 should have been #43 mentioning the 20 seconds ...... #44 wasn't even my response. LOL

[drumyn29]

Originally Posted by Mitch//pa

it was a pleasure going through some of the tests with you. everyone should have a meter, spark tester and test light...
here is just the wire from snyders

What about just hitting my local radio shack and make my own wire? I would think that they would sell the ends.

[drumyn29]

Originally Posted by Tom Wesenberg

Was the broken wire the correct 100 strands or more wire?

Notice that the terminal has two loops over the wire. The large loop is wrapped over the wire and insulation, while the shorter one is looped over just the bare wire. Use a bit of flux on the end of 60/40 electrical solder and solder just the bare wire end to the terminal. If you get the wire too hot, the solder will flow back along the wire to a point past the terminal, and this will make the wire stiff and more likely to break at that point.

I was taught to not heat up the wire, instead heat up the terminal and just barely touch the solder and give it just a little dab.

I really hate this whole wire design.

[H. L. Chauvin]

The pig tail wire sold by Model A parts vendors today is made with 100 strands to accept constant bending when moving the spark lever.

Thousands of Model A owners formerly used all type of unacceptable wire for substitution of this pig tail wire; hence, it either broke, the connections turned lose, or the wire did not flex whereby the insulation wore off after constant use.

Just think ............ look how long it took to find out it was this one (1) simple wire ..... use the vendors correct wire & never think about buying another For Sale sign because of this one (1) pig tail wire.

Hope this helps.

[Mitch//pa]

stick with the wire design

[mshmodela]

Originally Posted by jmeckel

Yes Mitch I agree. Time to start, in a logical approach, shotgun approach only increases frustration and spends $'s with poor results. The trouble shooting needs to start when the issue is occurring, not after the fact when all is working. A quick check of the "strap" on the points to make sure when it gets hot it does not touch the case of the distributor. I for one spent a lot of time tracking this issue down on my A. New points are not all made as they used to be.

On the testing spark front, here is the best tool I ever spent $5.00 on, use it on old tractors, old stationary engines, and old cars. It helps to see if there is spark under load, when running. And you can test the spark by yourself.

Home

| Inline Ignition Spark Checker
Pittsburgh Automotive - item#69014
Check your ignition system with this ignition spark tester



Only: $5.99
Sale: $4.99

Yeah, my local Harbor Freight had them... Tried it out after my drive today... handy tool....

[Mitch//pa]

Originally Posted by mshmodela

Yeah, my local Harbor Freight had them... Tried it out after my drive today... handy tool....

mike take note of the light intensity and quickness of the pulsing at idle vs revving it. this will give you something to compare it to if you ever have a weak or int spark situation