49 Hudson Commodore 8 4dr.- No Spark - Success !
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I parked this car in my garage 2 yrs ago, and have not run it since. It ran great when parked.
I went to fire it up, and she didn't go. Here's what I proceeded to do:
1. Replaced the Coil with a NEW one.
2. Replaced the Condensor with a NEW one.
3. Replaced the Coil to Distributor wire with a NEW one.
4. Cleaned and gapped the points.
Yes, I am getting voltage to the Coil when I turn the Ignition on.
But Still no spark out of the coil.
The two red lights on the dash were working "AMP" and the "OIL" when I turned on the ignition switch, but now this morning, they are not, but it still turns over.
What am I missing?
My Email is TRCaruso@gmail.com
Thank YOU for your help !
I went to fire it up, and she didn't go. Here's what I proceeded to do:
1. Replaced the Coil with a NEW one.
2. Replaced the Condensor with a NEW one.
3. Replaced the Coil to Distributor wire with a NEW one.
4. Cleaned and gapped the points.
Yes, I am getting voltage to the Coil when I turn the Ignition on.
But Still no spark out of the coil.
The two red lights on the dash were working "AMP" and the "OIL" when I turned on the ignition switch, but now this morning, they are not, but it still turns over.
What am I missing?
My Email is TRCaruso@gmail.com
Thank YOU for your help !
0
Comments
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One thought that comes to mind is the "New" coil. If you put in a parts store coil from current new stock you may have the polarity backward. These new coils will work but some are not thinking positive ground when installing them. Try switching the + and - wires on the coil and see what happens,
Roger0 -
You need to go back a few steps. If replacing things doesn't work go back to square one. You say you have voltage at the coil - have you checked this with a meter? If it worked when you put it away, the most likely cause is oxidisation of the points, causing resistance. You say you have fitted new points, but you need to check these, go over every step again. If you definitely have voltage at the input of coil, measure the grounded side. This should show voltage when you manually open the points. Pull the high tension wire from the centre of the distributor cap, and hold it half an inch from ground, and flick the points open, and you should have a good fat white spark jump to ground. the fact that you don't have red lights when you turn the ignition on indicates either a faulty switch, or the voltage supply from the circuit breaker. Good luck,
Geoff0 -
You guys are awesome. I'll try these tips, and welcome any others. Really has me going as I usually can figure this stuff out pretty quickly.
I picked up the Hudson 4yrs ago at a swap meet.
I'm a big Mustang guy,got lots of them (I've got cancer (multiple myeloma- had stem cell in Dec @ the Mayo) now and am thinning the herd to only a few for the boys and of COURSE... saving the Hudson), but the Hudson is the King. But My 4 boys and my Wife... the Boss... LOVE it.
I'm figuring too, there had to be some corrosion, so I "Tried" some cleaning of the points too. Nice thing about this old school stuff is that they are basic... if you know the basics, and great guys like you helping me thru the frustration.
I never thought of reversing the terminals... thanks, and the manually opening the points is an AWESOME tip, I never thought of !
What's really fun with this old stuff is one of my Son's is a Ford Tech, and he shakes his head in amazement at how easy I USUALLY get this old stuff running with some simple tools.
Tim0 -
Hi---Even though your condensor was new, I would still replace it with a new one. Jon Battle (club member) has had this very same experience with a new condensor. I just had a condensor failure with my 54 Hornet this past week-end. Hope this helps.---Cliff Minard0
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Re: checking the coil polarity ... if it's wrong, it'll reduce the spark voltage by about 15%, but that wouldn't keep a Hudson engine from starting. The 15% isn't critical unless you have an engine that demands a strong spark (example: friend of mine installed a '53 Cadillac engine in his Hornet years ago ... still 6v ... it wouldn't run over about 30 mph until the coil polarity was corrected).0
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If you are suspecting a problem in the car wiring "Hot Wire" it. take a jumper from the negative power terminal on starter or battery right to your coil. Bypassing the ignition switch and wiring . This will help determine where issue is located,
Roger0 -
Let's start with the basics.
Have you cleaned the battery terminals and the battery cable and ground strap connections? Is the ground strap making good contact with the frame and the engine? You can have enough juice to turn the engine over and still not have enough left over to ignite the thing.
Also: the condenser is bad. They've engineered them so well to fail, that they now fail before they're even used.0 -
Is the distributor rotor turning when you crank the engine?Possible timing gear failure.
A test light or volt meter should be used to eliminate guesswork.
If the car has overdrive , you may have a grounding problem on the distributor side of the coil.Disconnect the wires , and reattach only the one going to distributor.
Use a jumper to the hot side of coil from the battery hot side.
Make sure your in neutral and crank the engine from the starter solenoid.
If the coil is new ( Good ) and the distributor turns , it should run.
If not there is a short in the distributor.Did you check spark at the coil high tension wire as mentioned earlier ? If you have spark going into the cap ,you may have a cracked distrinutor cap.
Just a few things to try.
Good luck
Roy0 -
Wow what a cool trick I never thought of.. Snapping the points and holding the coil wire away from a ground...thanks Geoff. There is something funky going on in the points/distributor area, must be grounding itself. At least I now have spark(sometimes intermittant). But I also tried changing the polarity, and the spark got stronger. I'm going to use Tallent R's trick next time too, and I'm going to try disconnecting (lostmind) the overdrive wire too on the coil/dist, if I get that intermittent problem.
Thanks to all of you so much. She's popping, but the battery's low. So she's on the charger overnight.
She's going to go.
The two red lights on the dash still don't work, but she's firing, and I'll figure that part out later.
I agree, never trust that condensor, and now the stuff is worse since it's coming from China ! Ten years ago I had an instructor tell me and the class how China's quality will become top shelf, I dissagreed and said, given the economic/social climate over there, she was dreaming...... I'm still waiting....0 -
Fires good with gas poured down carb. Lucky someone put a filter before the fuel pump, it's clogged when I pulled it last night and blew it out. Ran a new filter, but the pump is now leaking like a siv. So I'm going to go with a 6v Airtex Electric pump and bypass the original.0
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Glad to hear you got it going. I was going to suggest to check the lead wire to points that it wasn't grounding out on the distributor plate. Had that happen to my 51 Pacemaker years ago when I first bought the car. It would quit sometime when the distributor plate advanced and retarded. The insulation on the wire was disintegrated.
Sounds like you may need to remove the gas tank and check for junk in it.
Jim Spencer
WNY/Ontario Chapter
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I'm glad to you got her running again. Might want to install a filter between tank and electric pump to protect the new pump.
Have a good day.
Lee O'Dell.0 -
Absolutely a given on the filter. Goes without saying... at least for me, but thanks for the reminder. Picked up the 6v Fuel Pump from Carquest this am... at least it's "Assembled in USA". Only $48. I did purhase a KEM NOS Mechanical Fuel Pump in the box off ebay as well. Someone hand wrote on it 1949-6, BUT... I was looking thru the spec stuff on-line and according to the spec, both the 6's and 8's used the same. We'll see.
I bid/offered $18 and got it.0 -
"No Spark"...... Hmmm...... "No fuel" should have been the heading.
Reminds me of an episode with my ex wife. .. She told me that our (almost new) '68 Torino "keeps running".. For anyone not familiar with cars of that era .. They had a tendancy to " run on". Shut the ignition off and they would keep running. A product of the new at the time, retarded ignition, unleaded gasoline, EGR valves and PC valves. (Another product improvement from Detroit)... As soon as she told me about the problem. I jumped into my trusty 53 Super Wasp and went to pick up some tuneup parts. Returned to the house and did a major tuneup on the family 302 Ford. All went well until backed out of the driveway and almost hit a palm tree across the road. Only to discover...NO BRAKES! As she said.. "It keeps running".. .Then there was the story of the Mustang that "Skips".. another story for another time..0
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