<VV> Bloody & Confused

[Frog Princezz]

Roger said...
Measure the voltage from the "+" terminal on the coil (the wire that 
comes
out of the wiring harness) to ground (the "-" terminal on the battery, 
or
any convenient frame metal) with the ignition on (not cranking).  That
should be 12V.  If not, jumper it to the battery temporarily.

Measure the voltage from the "-" terminal of the coil (the wire that 
goes to
the distributer) to ground.  As you turn the engine (and the 
distributer
points open and close), this should switch between 12V and 0V.  If not, 
your
points are bad (or mis-adjusted) or the ignition condenser inside the
distributer housing is bad.  Or, maybe the wire from the points to the 
coil
is broken inside the insulation (not too rare).

If those things are right, you should be getting spark.  If not, I'd 
suspect
the coil.  To test it, you can connect the "+" terminal to 12V and 
spark the
"-" terminal to ground.  That should give you a spark from the high 
voltage
wire each time you connect/disconnect the "-" wire to ground.


Excuse my air-headedness but wire harness?  Is that the electrical taped bundle of wires that lead from the battery to the tail lights and one wire (black&yellow) that connects to the positive side of the coil?  And speaking of that wire... the end is pretty mangled and it doesn't have a connector thingy (technical term again) on the end, could that also cause my problem?  Are you telling me that I am about to become the world's greatest wire chaser?

Did I mention the coil is new... put it on last week, still the possibility of being bad from the manufacturer.

I connected a meter to the positive coil and to ground (metal of the car) and only got 2.2 volts.  I later tried by connecting from positive coil to positive battery and the results weren't much better.  But before I made that connection I released the magic smoke.  Yeah, dumb me connected to the positive battery first and accidentally dropped the wire (it was a small jumper wire) and guess where it landed?  Yeah that's right on the negative battery terminal and POOF!! Magic Smoke. I rechecked the battery's voltage after the smoke cleared and still had 12 and some change volts.

The points and rotor inside the distributor look clean and move freely.  I haven't replaced them yet because they looked good to me but I do have a brand new set to replace them  I also have a two new condensers.  

Oh yeah, I did put a little gas in the carb that I didn't break the gas line to and still nothing.  The line that I broke was from the pump the the carburetors fuel filter, which buy the way was bright shiny gold stone looking barrel with a matching incense cone inside (all one piece) looks like gas has never ever touched it.

I print out everyones suggestion and take them with me when I go work on the car so I really really really ( is that enough really's) do appreciate it.  I am automobile mechanically challenged, telling me the real name for parts right now is Greek to me so please explain like you're talking to a 5 year old with brains.

Thanks