Help I’m Lost

[34 fordor owner]

Originally Posted by koates

First of all take note of Marts post at #33, very important otherwise you could cook your original coil. When replacing your high tension plug leads you must be very careful not to get just one plug lead positioned incorrectly in either of the dist caps. If this occurs then the engine will run a little OFF beat or rough, so recheck these. When testing the voltage at the coil what were the circumstances of the test? Was the engine running or not running ? If not running then were the timing contacts in the dist. open or closed because this makes a difference with the coil loading the circuit or not. Also if engine not running then how long did you have the ignition switch turned on for because the longer its on for then the hotter the resistor becomes and therefore the lower the voltage reading at the coil will be. The resistor is in the coil primary circuit to enable a good strong spark from a cold engine start. So therefore 2.4 volts could be OK depending how you tested. Use an analogue voltmeter because digital multimeters will jump all over the place on old cars. Dont get tangled up with all sorts of tests and changes, do one thing at a time otherwise you wont know what fixed it. You wont be able to test a condenser correctly without a specialized tester. The original Ford V8 condenser is rated at .36mfd where most modern condensers are around .24mfd but will work but not ideal. Regards, Kevin.

Thank you for this information. The other day I went back and recheck the wires and re ran them to ensure they were in correctly. When I checked the voltage at the coil the engine had not been running and I had only had the switch turned on for about 3 or so minutes.