Put new parts in the ignition and screwed something up

[Pete W]

I have a 1961 Comet with a 144

I put a new condenser, rotor plug, distributer cap, points, plugs and wires and something went terribly wrong. It would not start. I took the cap off the distributer and saw that I hooked up the ground wire to the edge of the pionts
where the condenser and primary wire are hooked up. I was supposed to hook the ground wire to the screw that holds the bottom of the points to the plate. I connected it properly and then tried to start it again and it made a whining noise and a saw smoke coming from what might be the coil and somewhere in that area. What on earth did I do! Any help would be appreciated.

Pete

 

[pedal2themetal45]

are you sure you hooked the right wire up to ground?? It may have shorted out the coil..
tim

 

[fordconvert]

Sounds like you may have had it right the first time?

A TYPICAL points type dizzy will have the wire from the - of the coil going to a clip or screw on the points assy that is insulated from the mounting side. The condensor wire hooks to the same place. There is also a small usually braided bare wire that goes form some point on the plate where the points and condensor mount to the main body of the dizzy. If you hooked the coil wire to something other than that insulated terminal or had the points set wrong (closed) that could easily smoke a coil. Also check the coil wire where it enters the dizzy and make sure it has not cracked or worn through so its shorting to the body. Also try your old condensor, I have seen new ones shorted.

A dwell meter would be a good tool to confirm that you have this problem solved before you hook up a new coil. A standard volt/ohm meter would also work but you will need the dwell meter to dial it in anyway. You can set the dwell while cranking with the cap off, it 'should' be the same at all rpms including cranking. The last few sets of points I have installed the gap has not matched the dwell and since the dwell is the important spec thats what I go by. I have also seen cheap sets that can be easily overtigntned and shorted.

 

[Pete W]

Hi,


I'm thinking that I smoked the ciol also because I smelled a burning smell after seeing the smoke.

The first way I hooked it up was having the ground wire hooked up to the points at the same place as the primary wire and the condensor wire. All three were hooked up to the same screw. Would that smoke a coil? After repeated attempts to start it I took the dizzy cap off and realized that I hooked the ground wire to the wrong place. I corrected it and tried to start the car several times. That's when the smoke and burning smell happened. Maybe I burned the coil initially but when I corrected the problem and tried to start it it made it worse because it was already fried?

 

[fordconvert]

Ya all 3 wires in the same place would be bad and would be hard on the coil to say the least. It does seem strange that it didnt smoke till you had it correct unless there is still a problem. Having the condensor grounded shouldnt hurt it or the points since the current would have been flowing through the ground wire instead of the components. Before you put a new coil in remove the - wire from the coil (good or bad) and check it with a dwell meter or regular meter to make sure there is not something else grounding that wire. Its also possible yo have stressed your ballast resistor so if it dont work with the new coil thats the next place to look. While cranking power comes from the starter solonoid but with the key on it comes through the resistor. Maybe while it was 'on' it got the coil hot and then when you cranked it the 'full' power made it smoke?

 

[Lazy JW]

... All three were hooked up to the same screw. Would that smoke a coil?...

Yup. Sure could. You can do a quick functional check of the coil by hooking power to the positive (+) side of the coil and use a wire to momentarily ground the negative (-) side, then quickly remove the ground. This will induce a spark from the coil (have the coil wire in the high tension terminal and a spark plug in the other end connected to ground). You can rapidly touch the ground wire and remove it repeatedly, making lots of nifty sparks because that is just what the points do; make and break the circuit.

If you have an ohm meter you can check the primary windings, they should be somewhere between 1.5-3 ohms, depending on the coil. I just measured a stock DS2 coil that went 6.42K ohms on the secondary side. 5-8k should be ok.
Joe