SoCal Jet Boats
Tech Talk => Engine Mechanical / Electrical => Topic started by: Nordie on June 10, 2008, 07:24:55 PM
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alright guys i made a whole new wire harness and what not and anyway everything works great except...my distributor lemme see if i can explain this as simple as possible...MOTOR = ford 460...distributor is a mallory dual points...<~~~i know POS...ok so i followed a wiring diagram foun on this site...I drop the distributor in and hook everything up...the motor fires we do some timing and what not, and now the motor wont fire there is absolutely no spark...the ballast resistor gets hot and the coil but no spark...i cant seem to figure out what is up...BTW i tried 3 different coils one was brand new just purchased today...if anyone has any clue on how i should have this thing wired or anything please help me...i would love to have MY boat down in parker this weekend and this is the only thing holding me up...i dont think i have enough time to order the conversion kit so i just want it to run for the weekend and i will work something out on the aftermath...any suggestions
LOVE
Nordie
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alright guys i made a whole new wire harness and what not and anyway everything works great except...my distributor lemme see if i can explain this as simple as possible...MOTOR = ford 460...distributor is a mallory dual points...<~~~i know POS...ok so i followed a wiring diagram foun on this site...I drop the distributor in and hook everything up...the motor fires we do some timing and what not, and now the motor wont fire there is absolutely no spark...the ballast resistor gets hot and the coil but no spark...i cant seem to figure out what is up...BTW i tried 3 different coils one was brand new just purchased today...if anyone has any clue on how i should have this thing wired or anything please help me...i would love to have MY boat down in parker this weekend and this is the only thing holding me up...i dont think i have enough time to order the conversion kit so i just want it to run for the weekend and i will work something out on the aftermath...any suggestions
LOVE
Nordie
Hey buddy check to see if your points are opening,you got power running to the coil
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Make sure you have a good ground and if you have an ignition box that there is 12 volts going to it when your key is on. I made that mistake before. My boat would run great for a little while then cut out and it would go back and forth. If you do have a box, it has to have 12 volts going to it or it wont make your engine go vroom.
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Chromey is near your boat and has a few ford dizzies......
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make sure that everything has a good ground. SHit can build up on the distrib assy and mess ur grounds up, and pull the cap and make sure the shaft is turning.
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It was running, right? Start simple, points open/close, condensers not shorted, you can take a 12V test light and put it on the (-) side of the coil and as the rotor goes around, should have a blinking light, (poor mans dwell meter), also you said "ballast resister" do you have a wire from the (I) terminal of the starter solenoid directly to the coil (+), this "boosts" the coil voltage while cranking to 12V not 8V, sometimes they will only start if you let go of the key because of huge voltage drops while cranking if you don't have this wire (not needed with an internally resisted coil, which you should not have).
Hope this points you in a good direction.
BTW just got home from work, not an insomniac or anything...(1:50AM) :screwy:
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You have a short somewhere. There is no current flow through the resistor till the points are closed.
Take the wire off the distributor, hook an ohm meter from the dist. terminal to ground. You should see meg ohms with the points open and near zero when they close.
Make sure the wire to the points isn't tilted down touching the base.
I allways unhook the battery when running ohm tests, you should too!
Good luck
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Every time I turned around with my mallory set up the ballast was junk, it would read 12 v going in and 1 volt coming out. Follow gt's advice with the meter and make sure you check both side of the ballast, btw let us know what it was ;D
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Wow this stuff is confusing. Give me a MSD billet dist and 7AL-2 any day.
T.J.
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thanks for all the advice guys i will take it all into consideration as im tooling with this thing, i got all weekend now<~~~pleashing out and not happy about it at all...i got so discouraged with the boat it just made me sick so i quit, anywho the ballast resistor was getting 11.65 going in and like 8. something coming out...im figuring that the points are grounding out or something when the dizzy is hooked up to the coil it doesnt get power to the neg. side of the coil when unhooked it does get power ??? IDK this effing thing is going to be the death of me
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With the negative side of the coil disconnected and the "key" on you should have 8V on the negative (-) side of the coil because the power is just going straight through the windings of the coil.
When you ground that side of the coil (-) this "collapses" the field and gives off a single spark with the stored magnetic energy.
That being said, unless the wire to the distributor is grounded out, you have a poins/condenser problem.
Have fun... ;D
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thanks for all the advice guys i will take it all into consideration as im tooling with this thing, i got all weekend now<~~~pleashing out and not happy about it at all...i got so discouraged with the boat it just made me sick so i quit, anywho the ballast resistor was getting 11.65 going in and like 8. something coming out...im figuring that the points are grounding out or something when the dizzy is hooked up to the coil it doesnt get power to the neg. side of the coil when unhooked it does get power ??? IDK this effing thing is going to be the death of me
The points are wired between ground and the negative side of the coil. When the points are closed, 12 volts DC is running through the primary side of the coil. This builds up a magnetic field around the coil primary.
As the distributor rotates, the points open, breaking the circuit between the coil negative and ground, which causes the primary side of the coil to lose power. This is where they get the name "breaker points" because they "break" the coil primary circuit. Once the points open, the primary side no longer has DC current running through it. This causes the magnetic field around the primary side to collapse. This collapsing magnetic field induces a much larger voltage into the secondary side of the coil, which is then fed to the center contact of the distributor cap, which then feeds it to the spark plugs via the rotor contact inside the distributor.
Just like what was mentioned above, with a continuity light hooked to the negative side of the coil, you should get a flashing light as you crank the motor over as the points open and close. If you're not getting that, check and make sure the points are opening and closing. If they're not, the coil will not spark.
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Also check the dizzy gear pin hasn't broken. Happened to me once, baffled me for an hour till I touched the rotor and it spun freely. The distributor was an old Mallory Unilite. On a side note, when I blew my engine last summer it literally bent the distrutor shaft when the motor locked up. Anyway hope you figure it out. I ended up getting a ProComp dizzy from a place called Gr8 Hot Rods in L.A. for like $120. It's a MSD copycat from Australia and uses MSD replacement parts and cap/rotor. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Parts-Accessories_Car-Truck-Parts-Accessories__FORD-BIG-BLOCK-PRO-BILLET-DISTRIBUTOR-351C-460-PT-8024_W0QQitemZ270244321957QQddnZPartsQ20Q26Q20AccessoriesQQadnZCarQ20Q26Q20TruckQ20PartsQ20Q26Q20AccessoriesQQddiZ2811QQadiZ2865QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item270244321957&
This is the one I got.
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It's official, I just got off 80nordics boat out at the lake. Not the Nordic but the Raysoncraft, all went well.
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Chromey is near your boat and has a few ford dizzies......
yep got one for sale !! call me
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He go tit runnin, short on one of the sets of points.
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good deal then