hey guys. Here is my situation. I am trying to get my 56 f100 project going a bit. I want to get the motor firing. Here is what i have so far. I can get the motor to turn over with the battery and i have the positive terminal of the battery also hooked to the +side of the coil. the negative side is hooked to the wire that comes out the bottom of te distributor. I dont seem to have any spark still.

I need some trouble shoot help. I have compression and fuel is pumping. I need a diagram/direction on how to hook things up and how to check parts. The cap and points look relatively new.

I pulled a plug and used a screwdriver to test spark to the end of the plug and nothing. I also checked the continuity of the wire to that plug and the center wire to the coil.

HELP PLEASE

Stephen OFOB

college student

Charlotte NC, Wilmington DE

hey man,

check these pages.

go thru schematics.



http://www.tocmp.com/manuals/Ford/1958/Service/08/Group8/index.html




This ain't no L-Kamino!

this doesnt really help. Im looking for how to test the distributor and coil. Im thinking they are good. The starter does work and i dont have the generator hooked up

Stephen OFOB

college student

Charlotte NC, Wilmington DE

Start off my checking that rotor is turning when you turn engine over. Then check gap on points and make sure they are clean. SHOULD START How does coil wire look?

Ol'ford nutCentral Iowa

56 Vic w/292 & 4 spd.

how do i check the gaps of the points? The rotor does turn when i crank the engine over by hand so the distributor shaft is not broken.

Stephen OFOB

college student

Charlotte NC, Wilmington DE

oh ya the wire to the bottom of the coil looks solid.I will check it for continuity if that would help. The coil is a botch coil that came from a late 90's volvo 240

Stephen OFOB

college student

Charlotte NC, Wilmington DE

To test the coil disconnect the distributor primary lead from the negative side. Remove the coil high tension lead from the distributor and place loose end of it 1/4" from a bare metal surface ( coil mounting bracket). Turn  key on and check for 6 to 8 volts at positive side of coil, or hook a lead from the battery positive to the coil positive terminal. With a short piece of wire that is grounded on one end touch the other end to the negative side of the coil for a moment then remove. coil should create a spark across the 1/4" gap each time the negative wire is removed, if not coil is bad.

To check distributor remove primary wire from the negative side of coil and connect it to a test light or to a 12 volt bulb and socket assembly. hook the other end of the test light/bulb assembly to the positive side of the battery. crank the engine, the bulb should flash on/off or bright/dim rapidly. If it stays bright you have a short. If off you have an open circuit, corroded points/broken wire.

This assumes a 12 volt system. Otherwise substitute 6V where 12V indicated.

Hope this helps, Mike

1956 Fairlane Victoria (ORREO)

 

Overlooking Beautiful Rimrock AZ

ok so here is what i did. I took jumper cables and an old wrench. The wrench became chassis. I hooked up jumpers to the battery. positive jumper went to positive side of coil. negative went to wrench. I then took the center coil wire that would have gone to the center of the distributor cap and fixed it so the exposed end was about a 1/4 inch from the wrench. Then i used a "jumper wire" to jump from wrench to negative side of coil. All that happened was i got sparks at the "jumper wire" when ever i touched it to the negative terminal of the coil.

Did i hook this up correctly? and if so does this mean i have a bad coil.

thanks so much. If i can get this running i will post a video of the beast running for the first time since i got it

Stephen OFOB

college student

Charlotte NC, Wilmington DE

Stephen, you need to mount the coil to a bare metal spot on the engine and hold the coil secondary wire close to the block. The problem with the way you are doing it is, the wrench is isolated from the coil. It is the same as if the coil wire were just sticking out of the coil and not near anything. Check again with coil mounted and if you get the same result you have a bad coil. Mike

1956 Fairlane Victoria (ORREO)

 

Overlooking Beautiful Rimrock AZ

hey there. Thanks for the help again. I did another "redneck" test. I wrapped aluminum foil around the coil and layed it on the wrench. IT WORKED!!! i got spark. now im testing the distributor. I hooked up a 12v light in series with the wire coming out of the distributor bottom.(wire to light then light to + battery terminal. Then i grounded the frame. I spun the engine over by hand and i didnt get any lighting up.

Im going to check the gap. (.014-.016) This is what my shop manual says for a 56 f100. Should i check anything else?

Thanks again.

STEVE

Stephen OFOB

college student

Charlotte NC, Wilmington DE