Electrical: 1960 Lark, 6 cylinder no start

[Orestudeguy]

Ok this one has me stumped. It's my son's car and we can't seem to figure out what is going on.
The car is a 1960 Lark with a 6 cylinder and 3 speed manual trans.
We have installed new plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Changed the coil and set the timing. The rotor turns when you turn the engine over.
The problem is it doesn't have spark. Oh and the engine turns over, just no fire to the plugs.
The po had done some weird stuff.And we have since removed what he had done thinking this was the no spark cause. He had installed a ballast resistor and ran a wire from the unused terminal on the starter solenoid to the coil.
We took that off and hooked up the white wire with the pink? strip coming from the ignition switch to the coil and used a non ballast resistor required coil, we even swapped the ign switch.
Any ideas are welcome. This is a really neat little Lark that we want to save.
Thanks,

[Orestudeguy]

No ideas, huh?

[BobGlasscock]

Be patient, George, the right person hasn't read your post yet. I can't help because I don't know about all those modern wiring things. Gimme a wire to the coil and 6 spark plug wires and I'm set.

[Bud]

If I remember correctly, the 6 cyl engines used a coil with an internal resistor. Be sure that you have power to the positive side of the coil. Be sure that there isn't a shorted wire inside of the distributor. The condenser or the points could be bad. Is the point gap set correctly? To be on the safe side, if you haven't replaced the points and condenser, replace them and buy top quality replacement parts such as NAPA or Standard Motor Parts Blue Streak ignition parts. I've had problems in recent history with replacement parts being defective which can really cause you a headache. Bud

[Orestudeguy]

Hi Bud, we have replaced the points, cap, condensor, rotor, spark plugs, & coil with new quality stuff.
We swapped out the distributor when it still wouldn't fire.
A while back someone posted a schmatic of just the starting circut, I went back to find it and cannot locate it now.

[christophe]

Here's what I would do:
With the ignition on, action the points manually (remove the cap first, of course) and look if there is a spark between them.
If not, check:
- that you have current on the coil (check also that it is correctly wired) and that is appropriated (9V or 12V)
- that you have current on the points
- that the moving point is isolated when the points are opened, so it can trigger the spark
The spark must be blue and bright. If you get a yellow weak spark, change the condenser.
If there's a good spark at the points, the problem is either the coil or the distributor cap and rotor. I saw some rotors with a wrong height, therefore no contact with the cap.
According to the manual, 60S models are not equipped with a resistor or a pink wire but, whatever you have, if you get the right voltage to the coil, it must work.
Hope this helps.

[Bud]

Do you have a spark out of the HV lead of the ignition coil? I recently repaired a 50 Land Cruiser that had spark at the coil wire but no spark at the plugs. I found that the rotor had gone bad and allowed the spark to ground to the distributor shaft. Be sure that you have 12 volts or if there is a ballast resistor installed, that there is at least 9 volts at the positive side of the coil. you can't use a resistor with a coil that has an internal resistor as the primary voltage will be too low for the coil to produce a spark. If you bought a new coil specified for your engine, you may have a coil with an internal resistor. Bud

[ozarkman]

When we got our Hawk, the wiring in the engine compartment was hacked up...I ended up running a hot wire from the battery to the coil, and a push button switch to the starter. I could start the engine from the left front fender. Just make sure the trans in in neutral.

[drnittler]

Also check your plugs. Many plugs out there are terrible. Check all connections. I found even little wire that look ok may noy have a connection.

[Orestudeguy]

Thanks for the suggestions. We will be working on the car again in the next couple of days.
I will keep you posted on what if anything works.