It’s alive (with a few questions)

[John Nickell]

Last night my father and I finally got his engine to fire. It was what I imagine is a classic scenario, my dad with a bottle of gas pouring it into the carb and me at the starter button. After a few tries we finally got the thing to fire. There were a few problems that did arise.

When the engine finally did fire and built a little pressure the starter would kick out even if the engine hadn’t really started. The starter was recently rebuilt so why this is happening is a mystery. The other problem that we encountered was the coil and the resistor getting very hot. The system was converted to 12 volts and the coil is a 12 volt coil. In a 12 volt system how is the coil hooked up? Which side goes to the distributor and which one to the ignition? Thanks for your time.

John

[martybose]

Assuming that you converted to 12V negative ground, the - (minus) side of the coil would go to the distributor and the + (plus) side would be to the ignition switch.

Marty

[greg g]

Do you have a resistor on the wire from the ign to the coil. Even 12 volt coils don't like to work at 12 Volts for long. They should be resisted to about 8 V.

On the points the rule of thumb is which ever post goes to the points should be the same as the car is grounded. The ign circuit goes from the swith through the coil to ground through the points. There for points = vehicles ground.

[bob_amos]

Sounds like the bendix drive, also called an over running clutch, on that rebuilt starter might be releasing too soon. It happens at times. It is designed to release at a given RPM and sometimes the spring within the unit is not tensioned properly and will let the clutch release before it should. I'd take the started back and have the rebuilder replace it with a proper one. Remember though, that when a suppler sells a company the parts for rebuilding that all of the units on that particular order might all be tensioned too low so ask if they can use an over running clutch from a different order.

As to the hot resistor. That is what a resistor is suppose to do. Any time you have resistance you have heat. That is how the energy is converted. To drop the voltage for the coil the resistor burns off some of that voltage in the form of heat and the ceramic resistor is designed perfectly to do this. To confirm that you have the right resistor check the voltage at the coil after the resistor has had time to heat up. It should be checked with a low impedance volt meter and should read around 6 to 8 volts.

[John Nickell]

Hey guys thanks for the responses. I will have my dad talk to the rebuilder about the starter.

As for the coil and resistor setup the coil does have a resistor in line on the ignition side and it was hooked up correctly. I understand that the resistor should get hot, my concern was mostly that the coil was also heating up as well. It got to a point where it was too hot to touch. I will check the voltage you suggested and get back. Thanks again.

John

[greg g]

A coil that gets too hot to touch usually needs replacing. Do you have another on you can mount? Or just get a cheapie from NAPA or elsewhere and trie it again. Are you points gapped properly?