Re: 39 coupe
Step one: pull a plug wire and see if it will jump half an inch with a nice blue spark, when cranking. If not, start at the coil; should have battery voltage with the points open, and about 1/4 less with the points closed (~6.0, ~4.5). Best to turn the engine over by hand (wrench on crank nut or rock the car in high gear, coil secondary (high tension) pulled out).
If no voltage at the battery side of the coil, work back through the ballast resistor and ignition switch to the battery to find the loss of voltage.
If low voltage and not jumping up and down when cranking, disconnect the coil wire that connects to the distributor and see if the voltage comes up to battery voltage; if so, the points are stuck closed or the wire or condenser is shorted to ground.
If battery voltage at the coil does not drop when turning engine to close points, the connection to points is bad; wire broken or bad connection at coil to distributor wire, or more likely points not closing or burned/bad contact at points.
Good luck!
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