Paul Roa

good afternoon to all first thank you all for your guidance its really helpful. i have a 1939 with a 218 motor. thats the way i bought it. my original problem was the car would not fire up but after assistance from you all and my mechanic friend it fired up. it needed timing, points and condenser, coil, spark plugs and cables, new 0 gauge battery cables, new battery and it fires up. BUT my problem is once i let it warm up i can pull it back and if i turn it off it wont fire back up. i live on a hill and if i let it roll and jump into first it fires up. but that shouldn't be the solution. any ideas? my boy thinks it might be vapor lock, we had this similar issue many years back on my 38 chvey truck. thanks in advanced

thank you all for your WONDERFUL advice. well i took it to my friends shop, three heads are better than one. it seems that there were a few things wrong with this setup 1. as you all pointed out the points and condenser were grounded out and they were burnt and now replaced and gapped correctly 2. the spark plug cables were not properly set, by this i mean that the cables were bad and needed replacement 3. the coil wire that goes to distributor was not inserted all the way due to bad cables 4. coil replaced 5. the rotor and rotor cap were replaced , I HAD put it on backwards, my fault 6. the timing was way off, this was a big factor 7. the distributor was properly set and this car fires up like a champ again thank you to all i did learn alot, my eyes are bad so i needed the extra help from my friend.

agreed...my son put the points on. maybe an oversite. but this is how we learn.

sir enclosed is my current setup...i see already the main wire is no good. however your set up looks different . i am to compare them now. thanks

no insult sir, one needs to take constructive wording to learn and i want to learn, i will check the points...

the blue one in in tekoa WA

good morning to all, nice info you all have here, thanks! I recently went out of the box of Chevrolet and purchased a 1939 Plymouth Convertible that has a 1946 218 P15 motor in it. the owner from Washington said it ran fine, it gets delivered and the car is dead, the key was on. ok so we push it into garage. we try to fire up the 6 volt system but battery is dead. tried to charge it no luck, bought a new one from napa. pulling back the choke the car fired up after several attempts cool we take for drive but when we got home that was it, the car didn't fire up again. with advice from others i did the following: replaced battery cables and went to 0 size. negative goes to starter and positive to frame replaced 6 volt coil with positive going to distributor and negative going to ignition had started checked, its good rebuilt carburetor replaced points and condenser if i put key on, using my test light i get a light on ignition, on + side of coil, on cable leading to distributor but i get no spark on #1 the spark plugs do look worn out so i am thinking of going to napa ordering spark plugs, rotor and rotor cap plus spark plug cables and see if that resolves issue maybe a bad distributor? i had read the Poor Man’s Distributor Test Bench but the part after marking the TDC (firing up the engine) i cant proceed due to engine not firing up any suggestions? forgive my ignorance i am trying to learn rather than just taking the car into shop. thanks in advanced