Ignition problem

I finally had all the parts gathered and switched the generator out and installed an alternator. A one wire alternator.

Fired her up, started good. The ammeter wrapped its needle around the post on the positive side. Right off the gauge. Ran fine, I checked the voltage across the battery terminals. 14.9 volts, charging good.

it started to miss. Got worse, soon the throttle would not cause the engine to increase rpm. soon after it it died.

I put my hand on the coil, real hot.

I waited a day and tried to start. No luck. I tried a few times. No luck. I felt the coil again. Real hot.

I swapped out the coil for another one (an old one that worked fine when I replaced it for a shiny new one). No start. felt the coil, it was real hot.

The ampmeter is still pegged to the post.

One question, concerning the coil. I have the plus terminal connected to the switch side of the circuit and the negative terminal connected to the distributor. This is a negative ground circuit.

Please help.

On BTW, when I pull the centre wire from the distributor and hold it close to ground, I see no spark. I did see one little spark, but it was only one little one.

Thanks.
Boyde.

Before I started trouble shooting the complecated stuff, I thought I would just check the gap on the points.

Guess what, there was no gap.

I set the gap, started right up. Ammeter still is pegged. Voltage across the battery terminals is 13.85.

I think I fried the ammeter. Maybe it is time to change it to a volt meter.

Thanks everyone for the help. I appreciate it.

Regards
Boyde

A simple Fix for a pinned (hung-up) meter! Give it some encouragement... TAP it. If its not hung up you may want to see if its telling you the correct current & you have alternator problems.

Phil,

A hot coil needs a resistor or a true 12 volt coil. Many 12 volt coils need a resistor (says that on the coil or coil package in fine print). A coil to hot to hold your hand on is probably cooked with shorted turns that you can't detect with an ohmmeter but that will kill spark.

Could be the condenser is bad keeping current through the coil. Could be the distributor wiring is mostly grounded shorting out the points.

Your coil primary connections are correct.

Gerald J.

You have the coil hooked up correctly. The wire to the distributor from the coil should be on the (-) coil terminal if the battery is a negative ground.

Thanks.
Boyde

I thought a 12 volt system was usually limited by the regulator to approx 13.8 volts?

Does the alternator have a built in regulator or require an external regulator?

Thanks
Boyde

Jim, If one looks for a complex problem they won't fix much. Its always simple but may have both a Cause (hight Curent)& Effect (Bad Points)

Regards,