If you do not have a test light take a jumper wire from the positive side of your battery and hold it to the positive side of your coil and check for spark again. If the coil does not sprk then you have coil problems. If it sparks, see if it will start...if it does not have fire to the plugs work on adjusting you elctronics in th distribtor.

 

do you think it could just be a faulty coil?

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My money is on the Pertronics. Recheck it. I had no fire the first time I tried it and had to re do it. Has been running ever since.
Dan

 

Ran a jumper wire from + side of battery to + side of coil, still no luck. The wire going from the + side of coil to the the firewall was beat up pretty badly and had been spliced several times by PO, so I replaced it but car still won't start. The coil seems to spark now, but won't start. put test light on coil and its worked.

any ideas?!?!? I am stumped

 

So with the key on (as if startiing) you have power to the + side of the coil?

Okay.

Pull the coil to distributor wire(the big spark plug wire) off of the distributor cap. Position it just above the distributor cap post (so that it will arc/jump the void) and try cranking it again.

Are you seeing (or even hearing) the spark jump the gap from the coil wire to the distributor cap?

If you are, the problem HAS to be within the distributor/pertronix unit.

This question is for others as I forget....

Can he pull the distributor cap off and watch for spark between the contacts of the pertronix unit? Much like you would for an old set of points?

Dave

 

Ok, here is my opinion, its either the coil or the pertronix. If the pertronix is bad, then it wont tell the coil to fire. Take a test light and turn the key to the run position. You should have power on the + positive side of the coil. If so, then the ignition circuit is good and is telling it to fire. Then, take the test light and put the clam end on the + positive side of the battery. Put the other end on the negative side of the coil. Have somebody tun the car over, and see if your test light flashes. It should. If it does, then the pertronix is working, if not, then there is your problem. If it isn't the pertronix, then it has to be the coil.

 

Silly question, but did you put the rotor back in the distributor before all of this?
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yea i put the rotor back in..

 

I had a pertronics that didn't fire once, I didn't have it seated properly. Take a few minutes to remove and reinstall the pertronics unit.

 

OK i tested the coil with multimeter and it had about 6 volts, battery was 12.1 should the coil have full battery voltage or no?

tested the resistance of coil and it was 1.37 ohms... the coil is listed as a 1.5 ohm, is this bad or is it ok?

put test light on it like you said, alligator clip on + and probe on - with car in run position and the light was steady, didn't have anyone here at the time to try to crank it tho.

I have also pulled the Pertronix unit out and re-installed, but James W what do you mean by not seated properly?

 

Autozone (and others) offer a free service to check Alternators, Starters and other smaller electrical components. Coils are on that list.

While, you're there, pickup a remote starter for $10 so you can work under the hood and crank the engine.

Dave