Did I short the condensor?

[jtan540]

While setting points today, I ignorantly did not disconnect the battery. After setting the points correctly, my stang would not start up...is there any way I could've shorted the condensor or is there any way to check? I did set off a couple sparks while working in there.

 

[Lazy JW]

Unless you had an arc welder in use at the condenser there is nothing there that can actually harm it; if you remove it from the circuit it can be tested with an analog-type ohmmeter. Touch one lead to the body and the other lead to the pigtail; the meter should swing toward zero and then climb back toward infinity (use the X1K scale). Reverse the leads and it should do it again. If it shows a dead short it is bad, if it doesn't show any deflection at all it is also bad.

Some digital meters will do this too.

Re-check all of the wiring around the points; you may have inadvertently hooked them up wrong.
Joe

Edit: I'm too lazy to disconnect the battery; it has never been a problem for me.

 

[jtan540]

Turns out the wire coming from the coil to within the distributor got grounded and therefore I was not getting any juice to the points. Thanks.

 

[Lazy JW]

Glad you found it; usually it's something simple like that.
Joe