[TR] Road side help/info pls - points

[Randall]

David, your Blackberry is sending messages in HTML.  As I said before, it's
officially unsupported; you should adjust it to send in plain text.
Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it doesn't.

David's question was :

> Thanks, we replace the pertronics unit with the points, still no start :-
> (  no spark at the plugs. When we cranks the points smoked a little, at
> that point a wise voice said stop.
> 
> The mga was still a +ve ground car.

At first glance, sounds like a bad coil (shorted primary); or possibly the
wrong coil (no ballast resistor on an MGA, maybe it was a coil that wanted
one).

I would be looking for some way to check the primary current through the
coil.  If you DMM will handle DC current to 10 amps or so (some will, some
won't), then you could just check the current directly (but it might pop the
fuse inside the meter if the coil is shorted).  A safer way would be to
temporarily insert a ballast resistor (remove the wire from the distributor
and ground it through the resistor) and check the voltage across the
resistor (ignition on).  It should only be about 3 volts (in this case),
much more than that indicates a shorted coil.  If you do the test quickly, a
shorted coil might not burn up the ballast.

Or just try another coil <G>
(But be sure to get one that does not need an external ballast, or else add
a ballast for it.)

Randall