No spark on a 54

Geoff

Basic wiring is ignition switch to coil, coil to distributor.  If you have voltage at the coil, then holding the wire from the  centre of the distributor cap about half an inch form ground and flick the points open and you should have a good fat spark jump to ground.
If not, you may have a bad condenser or coil, or dirty points.     

29sptphaeton

Do you have spark at the points?  With the dist. Cap off you can hold the coil wire near the block, and open and close the points with your finger and the coil should fire to the block. If there is no spark at the points (primary circuit) then the coil won’t fire (secondary circuit).

scottyrodgers

Still nogo got a different solenoid which was the correct one and here is where im sitting....6v neg ground system....using a test light i have voltage on both pos and neg terminal on the coil....have voltage on distributer with power from condenser to points .......power all around with ign on and while cranking but still no darn spark from the coil not even the test light comes on literally stumped. Now i may be moving to HI and will only be able to ship if it will run, i do not have the neutral safety switch wired yet but it wasnt before and i at least got spark once. Im on the second coil and condenser so far. Looked at a guys 52 hollywood and his coil had a resistor on it pic attached but the coil i have says no external resistor reqd

Glowplug

Not a resistor on the coil, it is a condenser used to shunt ignition noise to ground. Keeping noise from radio.

Glowplug

Auto ignition is dependent on isolation of the voltage path from ground.  Voltage develops from current which flows from battery through a conductor to ground when ever the points in a distributor close.  This opening and closing of the points causes the charged coil element to collapse. The collapse creates an induced voltage in the coil making a spark “hot” enough to create combustion on a spark from a plug.  I would go through this problem this way:  remove and discard the primary and secondary wires.  Make and install power wires to coil. From coil to distributor.  Use an ohm meter to probe the distributor and make sure the expected insulated points are indeed isolated from ground.  Do this static (distributor not turning) as well as having the distributor turning by  cranking the engine. Correct as needed. Secondary wiring: remove and replace coil tower to cap wire with known good wire. Once you have validated the connections and grounds are as designed add power to coil  (directly connect the battery to coil input.  Open and close points and you should have a spark!

bluenash

I hate to sound dumb, but did you set the points on the high cam? Looks like it is barley open to me. I have took a screwdriver and touched the points caps to make sure there is spark. If there is I would think it is a gap issue. If not Have you tried running a hot wire to the other side of the coil and starting it? Just my opinon hope it helped. 

scottyrodgers

Ok finally have spark from the coil, had to remove the whole distributor to get a better look. Went ahead and cleaned every contact point there was also shielded any open bare wires looks like I had a short right where Ken said also replaced all the plug wires and the plugs. So with spark from the coil to the distributor I thought the problem had ended then problem number 2 no spark to the spark plugs after multiple tries and testing every plug I went back to check the coil one more time and just like before bad coil again could something be causing these coils to go bad that I'm overlooking this one got real hot just while simply trying to crank it a few times I don't want to keep wasting money on coil after coil after coil

Ric West IN

Early statement from you refers to Neg. ground 6 volt system.  My question, why? Hudsons originally were a Pos ground 6 volt.  Are you using wrong coil?  or wiring backwards.? Shouldn't be "cooking" coils if using the correct coil and wired correctly.

onerare39

Scotty,

Even if the parts are new, you may have a mismatched cap and rotor, or a short in the rotor, or a crack in the cap.  New parts are not always good parts.

John

Rocket88

I had a similar problem. It was the points spring touching the inside of the distributor, shorting out the points. The spring is flat steel.

When I had replaced the points, whatever it was that insulates that spring from making contact with the inside of the body of the distributor was not installed correctly.

scottyrodgers

Ric West IN said:

Early statement from you refers to Neg. ground 6 volt system.  My question, why? Hudsons originally were a Pos ground 6 volt.  Are you using wrong coil?  or wiring backwards.? Shouldn't be "cooking" coils if using the correct coil and wired correctly.

Sorry that was a typo it is a 6v positive ground system , i believe going on memory right now that the pos on coil goes to distributer neg to ign i got a new coil....again.... seeing spark at coil and points but nothing from there and after a few cranks the coil getting really hot again

scottyrodgers

Also when i checked the old to new cap they are the same cant find what i did with the old rotor but noticed rub marks on the cintacts there

scottyrodgers

There is also about 3/16 to 1/4 in movement up and down in the main distributer rod thag the cap rotor is attached to is that normal?? 

scottyrodgers

Well we finally have take off last night after replacing with a brand new rotor cap that was the actual part I put everything back together and still had no spark and a last-ditch effort knowing I've been given the wrong part from Carquest on the rotor cap when I bought the distributor cap from them as well I took it off and put the old one back on and lo and behold Spark couple of cranks and a little starting fluid and she fired right up no smoke from the exhaust or anywhere which was great