[AT] Troubleshooting no start

Ivan Cousins ivancou at alltel.net
Fri Sep 29 17:37:41 PDT 2006


 I dont know about the hole in the manifold . If you choke it and turn it 
over  and gas starts dripping then it has to have vacumn on the intake 
because that is whats pulling the gas thru the carb .
 Crud in the carb or the system can cause problems but again if its dripping 
gas then its getting thru ..   Now if its got water in the gas then its not 
going to start .
  Back to the no spark .  Did you check the distributor cap over ? The 
carbon electrode in the center should be sticking down , its spring loaded 
so if you push on it it will slide into the cap but should pop back out when 
you let go of it . I have had them go bad and hang up inside the cap .
If you tried the jumper wire from battery to coil that rules out a switch or 
wiring problem .
 Now did you replace the condensor ? They can cause problems , and theyre 
not expensive . Are your points opening and closing ?     If you hook up a 
volt ohm meter up to the coil then crank it you should see the voltage 
jumpin up & down .  It should match your battery voltage on the high side 
but will drop off when the points close . If the reading matches the battery 
voltage then the points are not closing or they are corroded and not making 
contact .
no voltage reading then your points are stuck closed or something is shorted 
.
You can test a condensor with a analog type volt ohm meter simply by setting 
it to check resistance .  Unhook it from the wiring the put the neg lead on 
the can ,pos lead on the wire .The needle will slowly move from 0  then up 
at least part way depending on your meter & how good its battery is .(It 
should slowly move back & forth . ) A 0 reading means its shorted , or a 
continious high reading means it open, in either of these two its bad .
 If it had an 8 volt battery in it  and you replaced it with a 6 volt and 
dont have spark then it could be you dont have enough power to the coil .  A 
6 volt system has a higher current draw for the starter .    So if you put 
in a 12 volt you should have lots more power available . But it would burn 
up a 6 v coil or at least be really hard on it .
So what kind of coil is on it , a 6 or 12 v .  Did it have a resistor on it 
,if it did then is it still good ?
Ivan 




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