Just got a 73 Maverick with 4.1 250 6 cylinder from my cousin. He said it just died while driving, won't restart. Motor cranks freely but no hit at all. Has new coil, plugs and wires, distributor and points. Not the fuel system as pouring a little gas in carb did nothing. turned the motor by wrench and points are opening as expected. Not getting any spark. The voltage regulator was not replaced but pulled cover and all wires look ok and both contacts are separated and not burnt. One of the solder contacts looked a little gray instead of the silver look like minor oxidation. Condenser appears to be original motorcraft, but that's just for radio I believe. Visually checked all wires, didn't see any obvious issues. Checked fusebox and no blown fuses. I have ordered a manual for wiring etc, but won't be here for a week or so. Lights on dash work while cranking and oil pressure light will go off. Not sure where to go from here and don't want to randomly replace parts. Any insight would be helpful.
Points are simple, simple, simple, voltage regulator not in picture. Could toss it in creek and ignition still function. Check to see if there is voltage to coil + terminal. If so and it doesn't vary while cranking, points circuit is not grounding coil(or coil is open). If there is no voltage to coil probably a wiring issue. The "I" terminal on solenoid is supposed to apply battery voltage to coil while cranking, bypassing resistor feed from ign switch.
You state you replaced the points...Did you replace the condenser? If it dies...car dies...Replace it if you haven't. Make sure gap at points is set properly... Worse comes to worse you can hot wire the ignition. Jumper from battery positive to coil positive. Start car with key or with jumper at solenoid with key in on/run position. Note: its not good for the points or coil to do this. It is simply meant to see if engine will start/run on the points.
I did a tune up once, plugs, plug wires, cap, rotor button, points and condenser. went to take a ride later and...no start. it was a head scratcher for a minute but found the problem. it was a bad "new" condenser, right out of the box. put the old one back in and off I went. ...
The voltage regulator sets amount of charge flowing to battery, has zilch to do with ignition, two totally separate circuits. I dunno what fixed it but chances it was fault of voltage regulator are zero & none.
I'm with him. chances are it will be back, or you have a loose connection somewhere and what ever you did either fixed it or made a bandaid.
