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One yellow spark on my Farmall H

C

CPACy

Member
In the time waiting for the carb, something has happened. There is no spark.
I knew it was old, so I bought a new battery. Now the H turns over very fast but it doesn't fire.
The test light shows power down to the connection on the coil. I ended up buying a new coil now since I figured it was the problem as it was all oily and I read that they will leak when they go.
The guy I bought the tractor from who ran a small shop installed electronic ignition several years ago so there are no points to gap or condensers to fail, etc.
The coil wire does not give off a spark when next to the frame UNTIL I let off the starter button and I get one small yellow spark.
I have new spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap and rotor already on, but I can't get much out of the coil wire.
What am I missing and what would cause this spark issue? I don't get it.
 
Electronic ignitions are great to a point, no pun intended. They will help compensate for a somewhat worn distributor but they will go bad for various reasons. I have burned out two Petronix ignition systems in the past. One went when the coil shorted out internally and fried one. The other one I let the smoke out buy leaving the ignition on for like a week buy accident. It sounds like the ignition module is shot to me. They are also VERY polarity sensitive, so if the battery is installed wrong a some point and the ignition is turned on it will fry most of those modules. I believe that Petronix now has a module that is not polarity dependent so you might want to look in to one of those. The other alternative is to put a set of points and condenser back in to get the old girl running. I carry a set of points and a condenser with me when I go to a show or a pull just in case. I have seen several tractor pullers drag their tractors back on the trailer after the electronic ignition died.

OTJ
 
"The coil wire does not give off a spark when next to the frame UNTIL I let off the starter button and I get one small yellow spark."

Classic symptom of too much resistance in the coil primary circuit. Is the tractor 6 or 12 volt, positive or negative ground? What voltage and polarity is the EI?

Is there a resistor in the line from switch to coil? Did you install a 6 volt/12 volt external resistor required coil, or a direct 12 volt - no external resistor required coil?

Voltage and polarity of the electronic ignition will dictate how the rest of the system is configured
 
The Pertronix II system has a built-in safety mode where if you leave the switch on, the igniter will be alright. That's what Pertronix says.
I just put in a Ignitor II in a Ford 8N side-distributor and the engine would fire, but not run. I called the Pertronix Technician about it. Turns out that I couldn't use the metal plug wires. He said the plug wires were telling the module to shut down. I bought a set of Suppression wires from this site and the engine runs like a clock.
On Pertronix site, they tell me no metal wires. Who would have THUNK?
 
When you test for voltage at the ignition side of the coil, did you check it while actually cranking?

Not sure how your tractor is set up, but if the electrical has been changed, and the ignition switch has a start position, a failing switch can loose contact when in the start position.

If that test proves good, move the test light to the distributor side of the coil primary, ground the clip end to the chassis, crank the engine over. The light should flash each time the electronic switch opens and closes. If that test fails, and you rechecked the module wiring and mounting, and know the distributor is turning, sounds like the electronic module has failed.

Like others have said, they are polarity sensitive. Also the coil must be the proper resistance for the application. A 6 volt system needs 1.5 ohm, a 12v needs 3 ohm, measured across the primary terminals of the coil.
 
I have had bad switches not let enough power through. If all else fails to turn up the problem, bypass the switch and run a wire from battery to coil temporarily too see that
helps.
 
Get a volt/ohm meter and check what voltage your getting to the coil when it is hooked up. A test light shows you that you have current but you have no idea of how much voltage. So if you have an issue in some other place in the system ( switch or bad connection) and your only getting 8 volts the test light will light but the electronic ignition will not fire.
 
Here's another approach. Turn the ignition on. Then jump a wire from the hot battery terminal straight to the coil input terminal. Crank it over and see if it starts. If it starts, remove the jumper wire but leave the ignition on. If it continues to run wiggle wires between the ignition switch and the coil while it is running and jiggle the ignition switch too. There might be a resistor between the ignition switch and the coil with no bypass wire or the bypass isn't working.

A neighbor had a 656 that was hard starting after Pertronix was installed. He messed with it for several years but it always started hard especially cold. One day I was using this tractor and decided to investigate. The resistor between the ignition switch and coil was still hooked up and there was no bypass wire going for starting purposes. I bypassed the resistor, shooting 12V to the coil full time and it popped right off. That was five years ago and it's still going strong.
 
I bought a new electric ignition and for what ever reason that was "it". It fired up after replacing the EI and turning on the fuel. Not ashamed to say I did a little jumping around with excitement in the garage.
 
(quoted from post at 08:07:25 04/09/18) I bought a new electric ignition and for what ever reason that was "it". It fired up after replacing the EI and turning on the fuel. Not ashamed to say I did a little jumping around with excitement in the garage.
Click to expand...


Folks are led to believe aftermarket EI's are the greatest thing since sliced bread and will end ALL their ignition problems by getting rid of breaker points, but as you have discovered, in reality they can be delicate and temperamental and unforgiving and cause a whole slew of issues of their own.
 
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