Not starting - No power to coil

ebelizard

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Jan 1, 2010
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Rewired the car with a Painless wiring harness. All lights and electrical seem to work fine, but engine wont crank over. It WILL try and crank, however using a volt meter, there was no power reading from the coil.

Coil is brand new MSD blaster 2, hooked up to Pertronix Ignitor (within distributor).

Starter solenoid is getting power to all terminals, batter is good, alternator is good. Cant figure it out, any ideas?
 
If memory servers me, the positive side of the coil connects to a positive 12v source and the negative side of the coil is connected to the distributor.

Connect the positive side of the battery to the positive side of the coil and the car should run. You might want to put a toggle switch in there or you will have to yank the wire off to get the car to stop running.
 
Rewired the car with a Painless wiring harness. All lights and electrical seem to work fine, but engine wont crank over. It WILL try and crank, however using a volt meter, there was no power reading from the coil.

Coil is brand new MSD blaster 2, hooked up to Pertronix Ignitor (within distributor).

Starter solenoid is getting power to all terminals, batter is good, alternator is good. Cant figure it out, any ideas?

Just remembered something. I believe the blaster 2 coil requires a full 12v all the time to run so if you have the stock resitor wire in place it may not run or run very poorly. Double check your documentation and make sure the blaster 2 is a 12v rated coil.
 
Connected a wire from the Positive side of the battery to positive coil, negative to negative. Still no spark from distributor wire that plugs into coil. Im thinking it could be one of the following:

1. Bad coil (although brand new MSD Blaster 2, still could be bad. It was wicked hot when I pulled it out)

2. Bad ignition switch (found one for 8 dollars online, might as well replace it)

3. Bad engine ground. Would I be wrong to try and re-ground the motor against the firewall? Is it possible to have too much ground (if thats a stupid question, forgive me).

Battery is slowly draining, getting 11.9, sometimes 12v by voltmeter. I'm thinking I could recharge it or buy a new one...

Let me know what you think.
 
Connected a wire from the Positive side of the battery to positive coil, negative to negative. Still no spark from distributor wire that plugs into coil. Im thinking it could be one of the following:

1. Bad coil (although brand new MSD Blaster 2, still could be bad. It was wicked hot when I pulled it out)

2. Bad ignition switch (found one for 8 dollars online, might as well replace it)

3. Bad engine ground. Would I be wrong to try and re-ground the motor against the firewall? Is it possible to have too much ground (if thats a stupid question, forgive me).

Battery is slowly draining, getting 11.9, sometimes 12v by voltmeter. I'm thinking I could recharge it or buy a new one...

Let me know what you think.

Placing a ground wire on the -side of the coil kills the spark.
Having a ground wire from the block to the firewall IS important, it helps keep the guages reading correctly and other things working.

Your problem sounds like its missing voltage when in start mode with the key.
Start by using a wire from the pos side of the coil to pos side of batt(only temp or your coil will overheat) and use key to crank engine.
Did it start and run? Yes... there is an open condition from the sol brown wire to the coil.
No... there is a problem with ign system.
 
Connected a wire from the Positive side of the battery to positive coil, negative to negative. Still no spark from distributor wire that plugs into coil. Im thinking it could be one of the following:

1. Bad coil (although brand new MSD Blaster 2, still could be bad. It was wicked hot when I pulled it out)

2. Bad ignition switch (found one for 8 dollars online, might as well replace it)

3. Bad engine ground. Would I be wrong to try and re-ground the motor against the firewall? Is it possible to have too much ground (if thats a stupid question, forgive me).

Battery is slowly draining, getting 11.9, sometimes 12v by voltmeter. I'm thinking I could recharge it or buy a new one...

Let me know what you think.

You connected the negative side of the battery to the negative side of the coil ? Don't do that...
 
I don't have a Pertronix, but I read where it is important that the distributor base plate (what the Pertronix unit mounts to) is grounded. I haven't had a stock distributor in so long, I can't remember if the factory distributor has a ground wire. Maybe someone with a Pertronix could chime in.

BAC-935_1.webp
 
Swapped out the coil for a new one (havent installed yet), 9mm spark plug wires coming, new ground cable coming, and installed a new ignition switch. I will try wiring everything again from the ground up, and if I dont get it to start I'm going to sell it for $5.
 
Rewired the car with a Painless wiring harness. All lights and electrical seem to work fine, but engine wont crank over. It WILL try and crank, however using a volt meter, there was no power reading from the coil.

Coil is brand new MSD blaster 2, hooked up to Pertronix Ignitor (within distributor).

Starter solenoid is getting power to all terminals, batter is good, alternator is good. Cant figure it out, any ideas?

Follow the brown (what was orig color) from the I post on the sol, back to coil feed.
If it is not going to the coil, your not going to get voltage while key is in cranking position.
 
::UPDATE::

...Massive frustration....

I replaced the ground wire, put in the new ignition switch, and Blaster 2. Wired the Positive side of the battery directly to the Positive side of the Coil with a 12 gauge wire. I've checked all the connections to the solenoid and Coil TWICE, and IM STILL NOT GETTING SPARK.

The coil is getting power directly from the battery, but refuses to spark from the coil to the distributor (checked by having someone try to start it and holding a screw driver to the coil wire). I have absolutely NO IDEA anymore.

This may sound like a stupid question, but Ill ask again; Does the Pertronix Ignitor (that sits in the distributor) eliminate the need for an Ignition Box such as an MSD 6AL?
 
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I didn’t know you have this forums (I wrote an e-mail to support, but I’ve never got an answer back). Anyway, I have a question here for 6AL+Blaster2 with Pertronix Ignitor.
I’m using Pertronix ignitor with BOSCH BLUE coil with my ’74 Lotus Europa TCS (Originally, it had a mechanical point with standard coil for 4 cylinders motor). Before I modified for 6AL, the Pertronix wire (red/black) was directory attached to coil’s positive and negative. Positive side of the coil also attached to switched 12V (from ignition key) and the negative side is attached to voltage base tach. (Again, originally, it uses current base tach. but now it has standard voltage base tach. that means, the switched 12V is directory from the ignition key instead come through tach. originally) Now, I’ve got 6AL, I use the schematic graph “AFTERMARKET COMPONENTS Wiring to a Pertronix Ignitor Kit” from the instruction manual. All wirings are correct and all connectors are brand new (I cut all old connectors and put new ones to make sure I don’t have any bad connection). I tried to start the motor – nothing happens, no spark. So, I used the “white wire spark test,” from the manual. Indeed, I have nice strong sparks on the distributor code when I remove the white wire from the ground. I put the white wire back to the Pertronix’s black cable. But this time, I keep the end of the distributor code as is 1/2” from the ground to check the spark with Pertronix. I crank the starter – no spark at all (I’ve tried with both my original BOSCH BLUE and BLASTER2 coil, but it’s the same thing). It looks like 6AL doesn’t pick up a trigger from Pertronix. So, I switched back to my original wiring without 6AL/BLASTER2, everything is fine, my motor runs normal. Again, all wirings are right and all connectors are secure (including cylinder select in the black plastic cap). I have clean 12V on both heavy red and standard red – I checked with a multi meter. Is there anything I can try? Thanks in advance.
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#2
Old 08-25-2003, 03:49 PM
msdtech3 msdtech3 is offline
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The wiring diagram that you used for the Pertronix Ignitor is correct. Since the 6AL is firing while you are false triggering the unit that would tell me that it is hooked up correctly, the 6AL is working and the coil is working. I do agree with you that it appears the 6AL isn't getting the trigger signal from the Pertronix but this could be due to a loss of voltage while cranking the engine. Check the voltage on the small red wire and large red wire of the 6AL as well as the red wire of the Pertronix while the engine is being cranked. I would also temporarily take the small red wire of the 6AL and the red wire of the Pertronix and use a jumper wire to connect them directly to the battery positive for testing purposes. If the vehicle runs then it is a voltage problem during cranking. Also, if the vehicle runs you will have to disconnect these two red wires from the battery to shut off the engine.
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Old 08-27-2003, 07:52 AM
foyc foyc is offline
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BINGO!

I haven't checked the voltage on the small red wire while I’m cranking (it's hard to check by myself), but I hooked the red wire directly to the battery terminal as you suggested from the first shot. – IT WORKS! With a single snap of the key, the motor start running. I don’t know why the voltage drops when I crank the starter, so, I checked the diagram of the car. The original wire on the coil’s positive comes directly from the ignition key switch, but before that, it goes thorough a fuse (shared with many other electric components), and before that, it goes through an ammeter (more over, the other side of the ammeter goes to the battery but the one hooked the fuse side is attached to the alternator). – this might be the reason. I think I will use a relay to solve the engine run on problem, that is, use the switched 12V for the relay signal to switch the line between the battery and MSD small red. Anyway, many thanks! I have this weekend’s project now :-D.
I will post the result with the small red wire voltage information after I’m done.

Thanks again.
 
Originally Posted by Rusty67
Try to make the coil spark manually. I believe if you ground the negative momentarily it should spark.

ebelizard Quote:
grounded the coil to the frame, didnt spark.

If you have 12V directly from the battery to the pos side of the coil and you did not get a spark when you temporarily grounded the negative side of the coil, then it is a bad coil.

Did you disconnect the negative wire from the Pertronix when you performed this test? If not, it's possible a ground potential was preventing the coil from delivering a spark. Remember that you do not get a spark from the coil when you apply power to it... it's when you REMOVE power from it and the built up magnetic field collapses. Make sure you are using a clean ground to test the coil. Preferably another wire from the neg side of the battery.