T

Trailstar

Well-Known Member
Small problem, have my freshly rebuilt 3.5 v8 in and am trying to get it started, got it cranking fine, oil pressure rises like it should but no spark...
We installed a new electronic distributor with a new coil and leads that all came as a kit.
How I wired it up was exactly the same as the old setup was, only the condesor is now a small unit on the side of the dizzy instead of in a pack behind the coil. And yes I have a red wire running from the negative on coil to the engine bay as an earth, but I've been a bit desperate trying to find out what's up!:oops:
20191104_161100.jpg

The old setup went through a resistor before going to the coil, which I kept, this got incredibly hot and started smoking away while cranking just today so I removed it and stupidly managed to break it in the process.

There is power to the coil, but no power coming out the top where the lead goes to the dizzy

I have gone around and checked all the earth leads which are all fine, and checking the wiring diagram in the manual has only confused me more.:confused:

Long story longer, I'm lost and I need a lot of help....:oops:
 
You can test your coil to start with. Run a HT lead direct to a plug and make sure it's well grounded. (Instead of to dizzy) Connect 12v to the coil and make/break an earth connection to the negative side.
If that produces no spark at the plug then you likely have a duff coil
 
Someone mentioned to me in a quick conversation that the coil might not earthed so I put that on.....clearly I have a lot to learn
 
On my setup I had to fit an earth from dizzy as well... you don't need the ballast resistor as youve changed coil to a higher rated one...
 
Shippers said:
On my setup I had to fit an earth from dizzy as well... you don't need the ballast resistor as youve changed coil to a higher rated one...
Click to expand...

That's what that grey wire is...
Ok good to know, one less thing I have to worry about!
 
u should have ignition switched power going to pos and the neg going to the new electronic points/dizzy
Then an earth from there
 
kermit_rr said:
u should have ignition switched power going to pos and the neg going to the new electronic points/dizzy
Then an earth from there
Click to expand...

Ok that makes more sense, with the new dizzy, it has a blue and an orange wire running from it, what one of those do I wire to the negative and does the other one go on the positive?

Thanks for all the help!:)
 
On a traditional points set up there usually only one wire and that goes to the coil. The points would then earth through the distributor/engine
I've not used electronic setups so I'm not sure
 
Will take a photo of my setup tomorrow and post it... I bought it from Able engineering for my 101 and I think it had Simons web page on the instructions I'm also sure it has two wires to coil and per instructions I had to make up an earth from a third connection on the dizzy I used alternator bracket bolt for it to go to ground... when I look tomorrow it will jog my memory...
 
Ratae said:
What instructions came with the kit?

ETA Bit of googling onto simonbbc's website shows an electronic conversion on a V8 with two wires running from the dizzy. One wire goes to coil -ve & the other to coil +ve.
https://blog.simonbbc.com/installation-guides/v8-distributor-installation-guide/
Quite a bit more on the site, but I've no idea whether any of it would be any help.
Click to expand...

No instructions came with the kit...
Yeah I'll have a check out and see whether it lines up with what I have, thanks for that...
 
Shippers said:
Will take a photo of my setup tomorrow and post it... I bought it from Able engineering for my 101 and I think it had Simons web page on the instructions I'm also sure it has two wires to coil and per instructions I had to make up an earth from a third connection on the dizzy I used alternator bracket bolt for it to go to ground... when I look tomorrow it will jog my memory...
Click to expand...

Ok that would be great thanks....:)
 
IMG_20191105_115027.jpg
IMG_20191105_115000.jpg
IMG_20191105_115000.jpg
IMG_20191105_115027.jpg
Red wire on dizzy connects to coil on same terminal as ignition wire the green wire on the same terminal runs to starter to give better voltage to coil when starting...the white wire from dizzy goes to opposite coil terminal.
The earth connects where my finger is beside the terminal that the plug with the red and white wires connect to and in my case goes to alternator bracket bolt...this was per the instructions supplied...
 
Sorry for the multiple pics was doing it on my phone with poor reception here in Algarve today...
 
Ok I've wired it up correctly now, and still no spark from distributor, so I tested the coil and no spark either, I have individually tested the ignition feed wire to the coil and it's fine, the wire from the starter supply's power when cranked, I also tested this individually so I'm 99% sure it's the coil.

What do you guys think?
 
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