no spark at the plug

[70mford151a2]

Hello Gentlemen,
well the fuel system is up, now I have no spark ( I think ) I even sprayed a little gas through the carb and nothing not even a hiccup,
it ran fri night kinda rich, but it ran started right up and I was able to pull in into garage- yesterday I pushed it out and did some work with carb adjustment
small stuff went to start it and nothing-- it turns over but would not fire- so I pulled a plug, grounded it and nothing-- am I doing something wrong here should'nt there be a spark?
anyway started looking around took the top off distributer and noticed alot of crap in the cap, tried to clean didn't make any difference-- now what coil? I know it has been converted
to electronic ign. hell by the time I get it running it will be new help anybody have any idea how it could run one day and then nothing the next without changing anything


signed--Flabbergasted I looked thru the technical section and didn't see anything like this so I started a new one

[raymond]

It could be any number of things, therefore you must have a plan. The TM 9-2320-218-20 training manual has step by step procedures for figuring this out. I would start at the beginning. First see if you have power at the primary wire going into the distributor, then see if power is coming out of the filter capacitor where the primary power lead to the distributor plugs in, etc. Follow the procedures and you will find what is wrong. If you do not have a copy of TM 9-2320-218-20, you can download it for free here at this site. Just click on manuals at the top of this page.

Edit, I just reread your post and you mention a bunch of crap in you distributor. Is this a black oily residue If it is, you could have had a coil failure, so you could jump to the test for the coil as outlined in TM 9-2320-218-20. I had a coil fail so catastrophically that it exploded and got that black oily crap all over the inside of my distributor.

[rickf]

Careful about the coil test though, if you look back at my post "never leave home without your cell phone" you will see pictures of my coil that puked out it's oil and died. Once it cooled off the readings were fine. If you have oil in the distributor around the coil then figure it is bad. And don't get that oil on you, it is very bad stuff!


Rick

[70mford151a2]

yea there was some black oily stuff between the top pf the rotor and center peg on the the dist cap so I just wiped it off but it still wouldn't start-- talked to the last owner ( Dad)

and he seemed to think that coil was pretty old and it does have some oily stuff and some rust on top of the coil tomorrow I will get a multi meter and check it and the rest of it
I was so looking forward to driving my mutt this weekend but it was not to be it's been so long.

thanks guys just think one of these days I will be able to write about things other than mechanical problems and I do appreciate your advice

[70mford151a2]

well that was it took it out and the bottom was all covered in some real heavy thick black oil I assume that's a bad thing new issue ( they never seem to stop ) I found another old dist. that Dad had and took the coil out of that one but it's all black not shiny metal like the other one, so I put it in and fired right up I ran it for awhile, to warm it up to check timming got all the adapters on and now it wont start the same as before could I be burning out coils it wasn't new but why am I having all these issues and my brand new multi meter broke I'm thinking of giving up, I need a beer or two

[Ralph Fuller]

It's always something simple....after you find it.

[rickf]

Are you sure it was a 24 volt coil and not a 6 volt? Was it a M151 distributor? Coils do not burn up for no reason. Usually it is a short after the coil that will burn it up. Check to make sure you did not pinch any wires under the cap. I would have just swapped the other distributor in.


Rick

[70mford151a2]

Rick, the other dist. has points and the one installed has elec.ign I didn't want to go that far and I don't know for sure that the other coil is bad the one that's bad has a metal skin and the one I replaced it with was black plastic and it ran for at least 30 min. I might have just flooded it but no matter what I did I could'nt get it to fire.*
and to top it off the mutimeter that I bought at noon today , worked for one reading ( the main wire going into the dist) so I know it had power, but when it wouldn't crank I couldn't confirm that it did or didn't but next to grabing the end of the no. 1 wire while cranking I can't tell if it has spark even- ( the problem seems to be moving around )so here I sit do any of you know where one mind find a New
coil that will fit this jeep I really want a new one eventually, I've looked all around the net and haven't had any luck or is there a cross reference to get it from a industrial supply?


* that same old won't start when it's hot thing I'm even look into a professional rebuilt carb
cuz I probably screwed that up these carbs seem so simple I used to rebuild those side draft carbs on the old 240Zs

they were piston and were much more complicated and there were two so you had to syncronize them - this seems so easy but
I'm not gettin it
I wish I lived near Rick F then I could hire him to solve this

[raymond]

DId you leave your multi meter on for a long period of time. The new digital ones will eat up batteries much faster than the old analog ones with a dial and needle. As for the coils, these same coils were used from the early 1950's until recently in such diverse vehicles as the M38, M38a1, M151, M37, etc as well as a host of 24 volt gasoline powered stationary equipment. Since they were in use for so many decades, there were a lot of contracts and manufactureres, so you will find a lot of variations in appearance of the coils. Some are shiney, some are dull. Some have white plastic tops, some black. One thing all USGI coils share though is a stock or part number printed on them.