No Spark!
 

So, we have Benjamin's Nova ready to fire up, but no spark - until we turn the key off!!

The setup: stock dizzy, Unilite breakerless conversion, new starter, new Mallory coil, fresh battery, new wire harness. I wired everything stock, Unilite red to coil+, brown to ground, green to coil-, and stock wire harness yellow & white/orange cotton wire to coil+. installed copper braided wire between body and frame under heater box.

We tried:
* reinstalled all ground wires; battery cable to alt bracket (scraped off paint), neg battery cable small wire to core support along with stock wire harness ground (scraped off paint).

* removed yellow & white /orange wires from coil+ and attached to meter, 12 volts in 'Run', but only 10.2 volts while 'Cranking'

* ran a dedicated ground wire from coil- to battery-, same results on meter while cranking

* ran a dedicated positive wire from coil+ to battery+, something began smoking while cranking, assumed it was the coil since it was almost too hot to touch. I called it a night at 1AM, and brought the coil home - now that it's cool it appears fine, put an ohm meter to it and it reads 001 (I read online to do that??) After some sleep, I'm thinking I toasted the Unilite module....

We might try:
* replacing ignition switch

* installing a conventional points dizzy, (we purposely diverted from the old Mallory distributor setup to avoid this type of pro lem... :mad: )


Anyone ever experience this on a non HEI setup? The web is full of this experience, so its quite common but nobody seems to come back with how they fixed it!!

Thanks to Jason in NY for his help, ignitions are def not my area of expertise!!

I would definetly give Pete a call and also I would call Carroll Hine. He fixed Benny's carb issue.

You need to check if you are getting pulses on the negative side of the coil while cranking.
If not your points or in your case the Unilite is the problem.

I agree. Use a 12 volt test light to ground on the negative coil terminal. It should flash on and off while cranking if a good signal is there. If it flashes Probrably a coil problem.

Sounds like a problem with the resistor wire or ballast resistor, which ever you are running .

If you can remove the unilight and Put your points back in? if you don't have a primary signal. If it starts up and runs. That rules out the
Cars basic ignition coil and wiring. Then recheck the connections and wiring on the unilight system?

You may need to use an LED light bulb to get this to work ...

Had this happen a couple times before. It is typically a bad ignition switch...but just for the heck of it...do you have both the 'R' and 'S' starter solenoid terminals hooked up?

This is what I've read as the most common culprit as well.... I've got the R and S wires on the right terminals, but will def check again!

Thanks all, I'm going to get a stock points dizzy, another new coil, and will try to find another ignition switch - not sure how to change that, but I'll figure it out!! If this was easy, everybody be'd doing it! :grin:

Marlin,

Its not the key switch you want to change its the switch assembly on top of the steering column. The key assembly when in the run position and cranking moves a rod that actuates the ignition switch assembly contacts. Drop the column down unplug the connectors, 2 5/16 bolts, remove and replace, pretty straight forward.