302 ford no spark

Hey,

I forgot to add. The engine has a mallory ignition.

Wade

Pete,

Thanks a million. By the way, your video on how to align the shaft and strut were very helpful for us.

I am a carpenter, not a mechanic, which is why the stringer R&R went well.

I don't know what a ballast resistor is. If you can give me a little more to go on, that would be great.

Thank you,


Wade

Wade,
Follow the positive wire on the coil back to a rectangular ceramic block. That's the ballast resistor. It's there to reduce the 12 volt nominal to about 9 volts.

Mallory also made point distributors. Mostly dual point models. But it is probably an EI version.

wadeonminnetonka wrote: Black wire on the coil - post goes to the resistor. Coil + connected to the distributor and the tachometer.Wade

You sure it ran like that?????

Coil   -   goes to tach and dist.
Coil   +   goes to ballast res.

Hi Wade

Mallory made plenty of points type marine distributors over the years.

Your description of your coil connections is backwards.

The coil (+) terminal should have the wire from the ballast resistor going to it.

The coil(-) terminal should have the black wire from the distributor and the gray wire for the tach hooked to it.

If it really is backwards it will still run, but the spark polarity to the plugs is backwards and the coil efficiency is less.

You can temporarily jumper around the ballast resistor and with the key in RUN you should see voltage to the coil (+) terminal with the wiring hooked up right.

You initially said you had no voltage to the coil (+) with the key in RUN. If it is backwards then you should have seen voltage at your (-) terminal on the coil and if the points were closed (or electronic module in the no fire position} when you checked you'd see zero volts on the (+) terminal, if the points happened to be open at that time (or electronic module in the fire position) you'd see roughly the same voltage as your input to the coil.

So....wire the coil right and check voltages,

Also you should see about 1.3 ohms on the resistor and get a drop of a few volts across it.

Hope this makes sense to you, but if you wire it right and you have zero volts at the (+) terminal, check your ballast resistor and if there is infinity for resistance , then the resistor is your problem.

At the resistor inlet you'll probably see around 11 volts with the key in RUN with the engine off due to voltage loss in the wiring run that goes to the key and then back to the resistor

Like Pete said find out where you do and don't have voltage.

Little edit here ..... I'm sure somebody won't believe the coil can work backwards, I just went out and verified it with a 1.5 ohm coil and it worked. A little voice told me to try a 3 ohm coil that I have floating around and it didn't work, I think because of the internal resistor setup and maybe there's a diode in there if I remember right but I really don't know

KenO

You guys are super helpful and I really appreciate it.

KENO wrote: If it really is backwards it will still run, but the spark polarity to the plugs is backwards and the coil efficiency is less. Little edit here ..... I'm sure somebody won't believe the coil can work backwards, KenO

Your right Ken. Back in my aircooled VW days this was actually mentioned in the repair books since Bosch did not mark their coils + or - but rather 15 and 1. I also seem to remember somehow using a pencil,pulling a wire and making the spark jump through the point. If the spark was on the distributor side of the pencil the coil was reversed,it on the plug side,it was ok. Don't know if it worked but I remember hearing that.

Yahoo,

It is running, and running strong.

Wade,
Good to hear it's running.
We still would love to see pictures. Use the "post reply" and not the quick you find at the bottom of each thread. When you open the post reply, click on the icon of the tree with the up arrow. A browse box will come up allowing you to select anything off your computer.

Good luck with the Pertronix conversion. There are some that haven't had any luck with them lasting very long. In fact, some even carry a spare module with them.

You might have a wire with worn-thru insulation somewhere, shorts intermittently. Long shot but I have seen stuff like this.

KENO wrote: And a lot of them people with points, seem to carry around a spare set of points, and a condenser and even a dainty little multipurpose nail file too.

I've never needed to!! But, who knows now that the good old Echlin ignition components are coming from China!! Maybe my time will come!
BTW, a quick pull through to clean up the contacts with a file sure is quicker than a module replacement.

Gary S wrote: And then there are others who just carry DVDs,tic tacs, candy bars,petroleum jelly and seem to get along just fine

or boat with Eddie!

john

Nice looking distributor Gary

Curious, what's the adjusting knob for? Does it advance /retard the timing by moving the advance mechanism?

KenO

Yes Ken behind that adjustment knob is a spring clip that seats into the grooves you see on the knob,10 clicks equal 1 degree with a total of + or- of 12 degrees. You can see in the 2nd pic the direction you need to turn the knob for advance or retard. On the opposite side to the left of the 2 are the vernier markings to give you an idea of where your at,the longer line is at the center of the adjustment. The idea behind this is that you could easily change your timing on the run depending on the fuel you could buy.
And yes Chris that is Jeff's work.