Bill :
George's instructions are correct, except he is assuming your car has
been converted to negative ground and the coil is correctly oriented.
If the test light connected across the coil terminals stays off when you
crank the engine, try connecting the coil's points terminal (which may
be either + or -, trace the wires to be sure) to the ground side of the
battery (which may also be either + or -, not necessarily the same as
the coil marking <g>). If the light still doesn't come on, then either
the light is bad, the coil is shorted, or the coil doesn't have power.
If the light does come on, then there is an open somewhere between the
coil's points terminal and the points, or the points aren't closing, or
the points aren't grounded.
If the test light stays on when you crank the engine (without the jumper
to the battery mentioned above), then you've got a short to ground
somewhere between the coil and the moveable points contact, or the
points aren't opening.
One common problem when you install points in a hurry is to not get the
insulators oriented correctly around the spring. The spring has to not
touch the post, but does have to touch the wire (which also has to not
touch the post). Thus, the correct order on the post is : insulator
(small part up), spring (over small part of lower insulator), wire
terminal, insulator (small part down through wire terminal and spring),
washer(optional), nut.
Randall
59 TR3A
George Richardson wrote:
>
> A TR3 doesn't use a ballast resistor. Does the ignitor need one? Did you
> change to a ballast type coil when you did this?
>
> If you bypassed the resistor and got no luck from changing the coil or
> replacing the ignitor, I would check for an open connection between the
> negative side of the coil and the battery. That could include the wire
> from the distributor to the coil, the ground wire inside the
> distributor, or the ground connection between the engine and chassis
> (unlikely if the starter works). Try connecting a small 12Volt bulb
> across the coil in the fashion used for static timing. If you turn over
> the engine, this bulb should flash on and off. If it does, you've got a
> bad coil or maybe condenser. If it doesn't then you're going to have to
> track down what's missing. Try just grounding the negative side of the
> coil directly to the battery with the bulb connected. That should light
> if you've got power. Then you can use the bulb to track down the break
> in the negative side. Connect the negative side at each point between
> the coil and the battery itself: engine, distributor body, points
> connection. When it fails to light, you've found the break.
>
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