No Spark

[6Harringtons]

I have been trying to start both my amc inline 6 and v8 since last summer when I took the harness out of both of them. I have got to the point were I have power to the coil , but the spark plugs nor the points are sparking , and the engine turns over . I have replaced almost every thing in the ignition system including the coil . can someone please help me ?

 

[mylittlecj5]

Wow! 15 and you have 3 CJs already? your on a roll!

But please give us detailed information as to what you have/have not done to each rig. Pictures will probably help also.
Did the engines run when you got them, or what condition were they in?
did you remove the distributors or move them at all? are the points gapped correctly and in spec?
What wiring has been disturbed (or replaced after the harness removal), what parts have been replaced?
Ect ect ect...

 

[6Harringtons]

Well only the 74 and 73 are mine the 79 is my dad's. The 73 ran when I got it and I was told that the engine on the 74 ran ,and this is how I wired them. Positive battery cable to one side of the solinoid and starter cable to the the other side. Run a wire from S on solinoid that goes to + on coil. - on coil goes to points. Negative from battery to block. Then I bridged the blot from the battery to the bolt with starter on the solinoid to get it to fire
. This is the second way.
Neg to chassis ground
Pos to large copper solenoid lug
Starter cable to other large copper solenoid lug
Jump wire from pos batt terminal to + on coil.
Dist pigtail to - on coil. I have not yet rotated the distributor on the 74 ,but I did on the 73 it was
pointing left to the passenger side , so I moved it towards the front . Then I rearanged the plug wires according to the repair manual. I also never removed never of their distributors . The gap on the 73 Is gaped to 0.25 , and I have not messed with the points on the 74 , and this is what I replaced points , the distributor cap , spark plug wires, condensor, coil, solinoid ,rotor ,and the sparkplugs.

 

[mylittlecj5]

Well only the 74 and 73 are mine the 79 is my dad's. The 73 ran when I got it and I was told that the engine on the 74 ran ,and this is how I wired them. Positive battery cable to one side of the solinoid and starter cable to the the other side. Run a wire from S on solinoid that goes to + on coil. - on coil goes to points. Negative from battery to block. Then I bridged the blot from the battery to the bolt with starter on the solinoid to get it to fire
. This is the second way.
Neg to chassis ground
Pos to large copper solenoid lug
Starter cable to other large copper solenoid lug
Jump wire from pos batt terminal to + on coil.
Dist pigtail to - on coil. I have not yet rotated the distributor on the 74 ,but I did on the 73 it was
pointing left to the passenger side , so I moved it towards the front . Then I rearanged the plug wires according to the repair manual. I also never removed never of their distributors . The gap on the 73 Is gaped to 0.25 , and I have not messed with the points on the 74 , and this is what I replaced points , the distributor cap , spark plug wires, condensor, coil, solinoid ,rotor ,and the sparkplugs.

Take the wire from your S terminal on the solenoid, and run it this way...
(Battery +) > (a momentary contact switch of some kind) > (to the S terminal). That will allow you to start the engine without having to jump the solenoid all the time.
Then run a wire from the (battery +) to the (coil +). that will give you power to the points. Make sure you take this off right after you try and start the engine, or it will burn your points out!
Then see if you have spark to the plugs and let us know.

 

[6Harringtons]

I have just tried it , and I still had to bridge the 2 bolts on the solinoid, to get the starter to turn over . Also there was no spark in the points nor spark plug.

 

[mylittlecj5]

Hmm, sounds like you have bigger problems than I thought. But we can keep at it. Have you ever read a wiring diagram and can trace a wire?

next time you try jumping the solenoid, try touching the battery side and the S terminal. See if the starter will engage that way. It would be a lot less sparks that way. (edit) is your solenoid on the starter or is it remote mounted on the right fender? I'm thinking its remote mounted?

 

[6Harringtons]

I have a book that shows how to read one and the symbols. Also when you trace the wire would I use a highligter? I tried touching the bolt that the battery cable goes to ,and it did not turn over . Then I touched the bolt the starter cable goes to and it turned over. After that I checked the power to the coil it was 10.48 volts the battery I was using had 12.53 volts. Also the solinoid is the type that is on the right fender, the remote mount .

 

[6Harringtons]

I have just tried it again, and when I did all of this all this smoke came out from under the distributor cap . So I opened it ,and I saw the the - wire from the coil thats goes to the distributor was badly melted and so were the points. On the + side of the battery there was a extra wire that I used one time but did not need no more and that was burned to . After all of that I saw that I forgot to put the rotor back in when I was testing the points.