Good morning all and here is my RANT!!! I have a 71 Mav 302, was driving the car last year for a Saturday stroll and at full speed just completely lost all power. Car would not re-start and had to have it towed home. Get the car back home and start to trouble shoot, make a determination that the Distributor ( Old Points Style) is bad so I replace it, figuring I need to up-grade so I decide to go with a HEI Distributor from CJ Pony ( Scott Drake Brand) and literally it burns my wires up. Deal with the wire issue and put in another Electronic Distributor from Advanced Auto (Stock Brand) and I have power going to the Coil but no power going to the Distributor. I can see the electrode arc when I turn the key on. I have 1 Black wire coming off the Distributor going to the Negative side of the Coil and a wire running from the positive battery terminal to the positive side of the Coil but there is no spark to the Distributor and subsequently no spark to the plugs. any guidance is appreciated.
I bought a new Coil and there is an electrical arc running from it when I touch it with the test light and turn the engine over. Which says I have power to the coil. but not transferring to the Distributor.
It would help greatly if we knew what system you were using. Have the wiring diagram?? In 50+ years I've seen maybe two bad coils, almost never failed in points systems. Possibly more common these days, high output modules can overdrive the coil. Not all can withstand the extra current draw.
I guess what I am trying to convey is that there is power to the Coil but not coming to the Distributor. Coil is new and the Distributor is new.
Actually the distributor sends the signal to the coil to send spark to distributor cap via the center of the rotor then sending spark to which ever plug the rotor is pointed at. The signal is created by opening and closing a ground connection (whether it be points opening and closing or ring in electronic distributor) to coil to make it fire so if you distributor does not have a ground path it will not work. So you may have 12 volts going to the coil but that is only half the equation
Exactly, in a points system if they are closed(usually) there isn't supposed to be voltage to distributor. Unless you have a aftermarket system, all 1970s Ford electronic ignition require a control module. Those have SIX connections. So far you've been so vague, none of us has a idea what you're working with.
Sorry to be vague on this but I was rather confused on what was going on. I would like to report that I got the engine running yesterday. What did I do, changed the firing order from 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8, to 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 which is the firing order for an "HO" engine. I only changed the distributor from points to electronic and did not think that the firing order would have needed changed. Maybe some can explain it a little better of why the firing order needed to be changed, it will only help. Thanks, TonyJ
Thanks for the support, I just have to time the engine now and hopefully all is good to go. Thanks again.
The type of ignition has zero effect on firing order, you had to change to 13726548 because that's what it was when engine was last running properly. Apparently you have a HO engine or someone's swapped in a 351 cam.
