Aint-a gonna start like this !!!!

[BUBBAS IGNITION]

There have certaintly been a ton of "no start-no spark" posts on the barn over the years and this one was one of them.
The customer after a certain amount of frustration sent the distributor to us for a check and tune .
Placed the unit on machine and found no contact switching action whatso ever and heres what we found .
The early Ford used dual contacts with one set of contacts making the circuit and the other set breaking the circuit allowing the coil to fire and provide spark to the spark plugs.
In this case you can see the contacts are very coated and oxidized not allowing voltage to flow thru the coils primary , causing no coil build up and there fore "no spark". This oxidation is caused by setting or not running for years , coil working resistance being incorrect, defective incorrect capacity condensor and in many cases a light oil film. In todays example it was all of the above.
Even with the new replacement contacts we polish them to be super conductive before installing them using a fiber wheel.
New contacts and we now have spark!!



Old oxidized set of contacts......



[IMG]
[/IMG]

[1932 V8]

Is this for a 34 Pickup by chance ?

[Bruce Lancaster]

Some kind of film, probably oxidation, forms on some points just from time.
I put an early distributor like that on a KRW fixture to see if it was timed probably 30 years after I rebuilt it...it was still unused. The points actually no longer carried the test light battery current at all...no light at all until I gave them a little polishing. There seemed to be no actual damage, kust a pretty durable film of some kind.

[Kahuna]

Don't want to hijack the thread, But
Speaking about the Make & Break points, when looking at a helmet type distributor from the front, which set is Break set?
Thanks

[FlatheadTed]

The set on the right .

[BUBBAS IGNITION]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

Originally Posted by FlatheadTed

The set on the right .

Yep drivers side.......

[BUBBAS IGNITION]

Originally Posted by 1932 V8

Is this for a 34 Pickup by chance ?

Left the shop Headed to Calif this afternoon, i think it was for a 33 Ford .....

[2935ford]

Can't understand why grease, paint, rust......won't allow spark!!!!!!!!!!LOL

[PeteVS]

I redid the distributor for my old Chevy a couple of years before I got the car together. Wouldn't start- no spark!! Filed the points a little and it fired right up. Let it set for another two years and had the same thing happen! Son of a ....! Put a "Stealth" one wire transistor set up in and no problems since! People who make points now a days aren't going to spend any money on things like quality!

[51 MERC-CT]

Don't know if anyone remembers doing what some of us used to do back in the early 50's.
We would take our new set of points to our local jeweler and he would braze a layer of platinum on them to help alleviate such problems.
Later most if not all aircraft magnetos had platinum points as standard equipment.