I need help!! Please!!

[Paul Mike]

Could be a stripped timing gear. Double check your timing.

[Synchro909]

Originally Posted by Paul Mike

Could be a stripped timing gear. Double check your timing.

Yup, That'd do it!

[tp79557]

Originally Posted by Synchro909

Yup, That'd do it!

Lord I hope not, isn’t that pretty involved to replace?

[Synchro909]

Originally Posted by tp79557

Lord I hope not, isn’t that pretty involved to replace?

It's not too bad. The engine doesn't have to come out. It is even possible to do it without removing the radiator but easier if you do, IMO.

[Clem Clement]

Keep you spirits up. The old car is messing with you. They all do. You can loosen the band on the starter and slide it out of the way and clean the commutator with emery paper. capacitor is inside the distributor.
wear a glove when adding gas to the carb. Spray ether works well in a well ventilated area.

You'll get it!! You have a Model a club nearby?

[Tom Wesenberg]

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Remove the distributor cap and hold the coil on the rotor contact, then have someone crank the engine with the key on to see if the spark jumps to all 4 contacts. I've see a couple rotors short the spark to ground by jumping through the rotor to the shaft.

[30 Closed Cab PU]

After performing all the above suggestions, recheck. Write results down to keep track of what you have done. Be methodical.


Points gap - Adjust, clean points, check points for alignment. .020 - .022
Timing - Timing pin, points just open with spark advance lever fully up retarded
Rotor- when the Dist. cap clips are removed , does the cap spring up slightly?
Old Style Plates - Remove upper Plate, inspect pig tail, original plates or wireless plates?
Check if Sheathed cable going into distributor is screwed in too far - Can short out cable internal inside Dist.
With points closed, ignition on, use dowel or something plastic to open close points - Nice blue spark on opening. If bright blue flash and can hear a snapping sound from the spark, probable bad condenser.
When cranking motor with ignition on - Does ammeter wiggle - indicates primary side of ignition is most likely OK. Do not leave ignition on points close for more than a minute or 2, coil can heat up.
Coil - with terminal leads and coil/dist. wire off off, ignition off - On 6V system use a multimeter on Ohms, measure across the screw terminals - 1.5 ohms. Measure each terminal individually to the center coil high tension lead terminal/socket - 10K -15K ohms
Remove one spark plug lead at the spark plug. Place the lead about 1/4" from the spark plug terminal. With ignition on, crank motor, should see a nice blue spark. If weak blue or yellow, possible bad connection or coil.
Remove a spark plug, with lead on lead ground plug to a clean head bolt - ignition on crank motor - nice blue spark.


As stated previously a bad timing gear - not sure how to check for that without taking the cover off - perhaps others can help.




If pouring gas directly into carb - after a no start, pull plug - should be wet from gas or smell like gas. Inspect plug - clean and gap

[katy]

Ohms, measure across the screw terminals - 1.5 ohms

Approximately!

[30 Closed Cab PU]

Originally Posted by katy

Approximately!

I agree, but should be close. I tried an old 6 v coil found in a bunch of stuff of my fathers, was marked Allis Chalmers. Had 2 ohm primarily and 8 k ohm secondary readings - kinda worked, but spark was weak and poor gas mileage, sooty plugs. Tried it on a 6v Allis tractor and worked fine. I did not look, assumed the plugs were either gapped differntly, or it used a hotter range plug.

[tp79557]

Originally Posted by Clem Clement

Keep you spirits up. The old car is messing with you. They all do. You can loosen the band on the starter and slide it out of the way and clean the commutator with emery paper. capacitor is inside the distributor.
wear a glove when adding gas to the carb. Spray ether works well in a well ventilated area.

You'll get it!! You have a Model a club nearby?

Thank you for the encouraging words! I believe she is messing with me. I want her running so bad, that my patience is almost non existent. I do have a club nearby. The Autumn A’s out of Quitman, Texas. I think it’s time to sign up!

[tp79557]

Originally Posted by Tom Wesenberg

Remove the distributor cap and hold the coil on the rotor contact, then have someone crank the engine with the key on to see if the spark jumps to all 4 contacts. I've see a couple rotors short the spark to ground by jumping through the rotor to the shaft.

So if I understand right, the cap shouldn’t touch the contacts? If it does, then it would ground out?

[Tom Wesenberg]

Originally Posted by tp79557

So if I understand right, the cap shouldn’t touch the contacts? If it does, then it would ground out?

The carbon should rub on the rotor spring contact, and the end of the rotor should have an even gap of about.020" to each of the 4 spark plug contacts. I had a rotor where the high voltage went down the spring contact and shorted through the plastic, or Bakelite, to the shaft.

[28]

Agree with the timing gear. Mine sheared completely so there was zero movement with the valves, so a compression test worked in my case to quickly pinpoint the issue.

If you’ve got spark at the plugs and you tried the gas squirt, then I’d say your problem lies with timing/compression.

[Badpuppy]

Back to 6V conversion. A 6 volt coil draws about 4 amps, which means a 12 volt would draw only 2 amps to produce the same spark. If there is an extra one-ohm resistance anywhere in the ignition current path, you would lose 2 volts in a 12 volt system, leaving 10 volts at the coil. In a 6-volt system that same resistance would drop 4 volts, which doesn't leave much for a 6 volt coil to work with.

The current path is extensive with some resistance at every connection point:
Battery(-) - (fuse) - junction box(L) - (-)ammeter(+) - junction box(R) - (-)coil(+) - ignition switch - dist. points - engine/mounts - frame - battery (+).

Point is, check everything in the path with an ohmmeter for any resistance. Remove fuse and check to coil through the ammeter, then coil to points armature through the ignition switch. Also check from battery(+) to engine block. Divide and conquer.

[Ernie Vitucci]

Another idea...those glass fuses can be a real problem on the clip on top of the starter. I had one fail and it failed inside the chrome tip and I could not see that it had failed. We changed the fuse and the old girl fired right up. I said bad words! Ernie in Arizona

[30 Closed Cab PU]

"Back to 6V conversion. A 6 volt coil draws about 4 amps, which means a 12 volt would draw only 2 amps to produce the same spark."


6 v coils - are 1.5 ohms. 12 v coils - are 3 ohms, or you can use a 6V coil with a series 1.5 ohm ballast resistor.


In all 3 cases with points closed current is 4 amps.

[kenparker]

tp. Autumn Trails A' have some good guys and some very good "A" mechanics. All the hints and advice above is good stuff. One double check for condensor is to remove distributor cap and rotor. Manually move the points until they spark. Move them and make spark about 10 times in a row. If the spark quits after the first or second spark then condensor is bad. If they spark all 10 times condensor is good. Not 100 percent accurate but an easy check. ken of the Autumn Trails A's.