Electrical: On the coil, Negative goes to the distributor on a 289 R2?

[Buck]

I'm still trying to figure out why my engine is fish bitein', On the coil does the negative wire go to the distributor and the positive goes to the side of the resistor? I put a meter on the resistor and I have a dead ground with the key off and 12.75 volts with the key on. I disconnected the tach thinking it might be causing the bitein' but even disconnected it's getting impulses from somewhere. It will spike up to 2K RPMs every so often and then lay dead for a spell. About to drive me crazy. Thanks again for your help.

[41 Frank]

Yes the negative wire from the coil goes to the distributor.

[Mike Van Veghten]

As said...yes...on all negitive ground coils, the negative coil wire goes to the distributer.

Mike

[64Avanti]

Have you considered that the tach sending unit might be bad. Most were not very good when new!

[tbirdtbird]

Can you give an explanation of what the symptoms are without referring to fish? I am not a biologist. Is this a starting problem? running problem? Runs rough? skips? stalls? no power? hesitates under load but runs fine without load? Does it start right up? We need help here.

Short out one plug at a time when idling using a screwdriver and see if you have a plug that is not doing anything?
Need diagnostics. Leave the fish in the ocean

[Buck]

It never flat out misses and it's never the same cylinder. It happens mostly when you are just maintaining a certain speed. It just stumbles and then it will clear up and run smoothly. On hard acceleration it runs great.

[Jerry Forrester]

It never flat out misses and it's never the same cylinder. It happens mostly when you are just maintaining a certain speed. It just stumbles and then it will clear up and run smoothly. On hard acceleration it runs great.

I would try a new set of points.

[bezhawk]

Sounds like sloppy mechanical advance weights. (worn pivots) . By the way, on some factory Prestolite transignitor transistor ignitions, the neg side of the coil didn't go to the points. On the R3 I just did, it went to the trigger of the transistor unit, and from there to the dist.

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

Sounds like sloppy mechanical advance weights. (worn pivots) . By the way, on some factory Prestolite transignitor transistor ignitions, the neg side of the coil didn't go to the points. On the R3 I just did, it went to the trigger of the transistor unit, and from there to the dist.

I think Bezhawk is right on the money. The mechanical advance weight are worn and have grooves in the pivots. My Hawk has never run better than after I sent my distributor to "Bud" (forum member) in Hawthorne, California for a complete rebuild. It was like my R2 engine came alive. He sends back all the worn parts and rebuilds it at a very reasonable price. Don't waste your time even thinking about it, if your engine is fluttering at throughout the RPM range at constant speed but accelerates reasonably it is because the weights fly open give you advance but then start to flop around on the pivot points at constant speed. Just be aware that your vacuum advance my be shot as well. I have had to replace two of them as well and those are not cheap. The last two that I purchased were through Dave T-Bow and he may be out of stock by now.

Here is his contact information: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...r.php?3995-Bud

You will not regret it. He's done a couple of R-series distributors for me.

If you have Tachometer problems with the needle jumping all over the place and laying dead sometimes it may be the round sending unit electronic going bad. They are available through many vendors.

Allen