I am hoping someone can talk me through a starting problem with my 1930 Swallow saloon.
I charged the battery and went to start my normally reliable Seven engine today and I could not get a spark. I don't know what is wrong but the points on the DS4 distributor got very hot. In fact I burned my finger on them. Could I have a faulty coil? or would it be a condenser? Or something else?
I have a multimeter but I don't know what settings to use to test the coil etc.
Try this, Ray -from the Lucas Training Notes (Fig 71 on):
Apologies for the quality, I no longer have free access to a decent scanner.
CB = coil primary terminal connected to coil
SW = coil primary terminal connected to ignition switch
I haven't edited because some cars have been changed from (+) ve to (-) grounding.
The Wilkson voltmeter in the volt-ammeter sets which was the weapon of choice for this work years ago was usually scaled 0-40 volts, but if you're using a modern DMM 0-20v is fine.
Fig 74 "Volts at CB terminal...." this reading shouldn't exceed 0.2v so you'd want to set your DMM to 0-2v for that test
From what information you have given you may have a short-circuited coil primary winding, or possible excessive points resistance (causing heating due to the voltage drop), but both scenarios are seemingly unrelated to a recent battery charge?!
Unless the car has been standing unused for a while in which case excessive points resistance would be my first check (Fig74)
07-07-2022, 01:39 AM (This post was last modified: 15-07-2022, 10:32 PM by Ray White.)
Thank you for the information. I tried cleaning the points with a piece of fine abrasive paper but to no avail. I have to suspect the coil for no other reason than it is very old. In fact it may be original to the car being a Remix (short, dumpy style) and has been on the car for the whole of my ownership which is over 40 years.
No Worries Ray!
I'm sure the UK forumists will be able to report on your choice/suggest alternatives if necessary.
I have heard of the primary windings shorting against each other (i.e. reducing their resistance and increasing the primary current) but my experience has been failing open circuit, or a shorting to earth via the coil case.
All the best
AGW
I don't know what is happening here. I went to check that the rotor was turning but to my surprise the battery was completely dead this morning...and no, I hadn't left the ignition switched on. I have heard of batteries dropping dead like a stone but never experienced anything like this!
There's a dead short somewhere. Given that all you've done is charge the battery and it was fine beforehand, start by looking there. It's more likely to be something simple, rather than something obscure and complicated.
(06-07-2022, 08:24 PM)Ray White Wrote: Could I have a faulty coil? or would it be a condenser? Or something else?
I have a multimeter but I don't know what settings to use to test the coil etc.
Ray.
Ray, to check the resistance of the coil set your meter to the 'ohms' setting and with at least one wire removed from the coil, put the meter across the two connections on the coil. For a 6 volt coil I would expect about 1.5 ohms.
