Since the distributor gets its power from the coil I'd lean more to a dead short in the distributor. I always used to hear that leaving the key on will burn up points, maybe it was the wire this time.

 

i’ve honestly never worked on a points and condenser system before. well other than cleaning the points and calling it good.

wire from the coil is melted inside. points look burnt up and distorted from the heat, the short blue wire on the left is a ground strap? it’s showing almost all copper.

should i start with points and condenser? cap and rotor are old but not bad from the looks

 

It looks to me like the blue wire is squeezed between the points and the base plate which probably punctured the insulation and shorted it out. The orange wire goes to the condenser. The bare wire is a ground.

 

forgive me if i don’t follow correctly, but there’s the wire that goes to the coil (the one that’s burnt in half) the orange wire for the condenser. and the short wire that looks like a ground strap. two of the wires appear blue to me. but you’re saying the wire that melted shouldn’t go to where the orange wire is?

 

I'd pull that distributor out and send the entire thing out for a rebuild, recurve. I think it's mustangs barn that does it, so.eone verify that.

 

just got new points, condenser, cap, and rotor. battery is charging at o’reilly. gonna wait for a while because there’s dead stop traffic back home, if not i’m going to get a new battery

 

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Short in the coil?

 

The distributor is toasted. The wire from the coil to the distributor needs to be replaced, along with the grommet going into the distributor (it may come as one piece). The grounds need to be cleaned. The breaker plate rides on nylon bushings, they may be ruined. The slides on the breaker plate need to be cleaned and lubed. I would consider a replacement distributor unless you can refurbish the one you have.

 

Looks, to me, like the points overheated causing the insulator at the wire lead connections to fail and with the subsequent short to ground, the lead wire to the distributor, being the weak link, failed.

If the readings regarding coil primary resistance are correct, this could be the cause. With a points system, the primary coil resistance needs to be approximately 1.5 Ohms, a ballast between the coil and power source of another 1.5 Ohms added, resulting a primary circuit resistance of 3.0 Ohms +/-. Here are some basic figures to show what happens when you eliminate resistance....

OE Resistance Wire and 1.5 Ohm Coil in place.
Volts: 13.5
Amps: 4.5
Watts: 60.75

Using a low-impedance 0.5 Ohm Coil...
Volts: 13.5
Amps: 6.75
Watts: 91.125

Using a low-impedance 0.5 Ohm Coil and bypassing the resistance wire...
Volts: 13.5
Amps: 27
Watts: 364.5

Granted, with the engine running and, due to point dwell, the load is not constant, but there's no way the lead wire to the distributor is going to handle the amperage without failing.

 

so is the low ohm reading on the primary coil showing the coil is bad?
the car has been sitting for almost 10 years. i’m pretty sure 10 years ago is when this happened, even at that time, it was just sitting in a barn getting started and brought up to temp every year

 

hello everyone, back again. threw new points, condenser, coil, cap, and rotor at it. gapped points to .017 thou. it doesn’t have spark. cranks over good, no galloping so decent compression. accelerator pump works fine on the carb. just no spark. the primary circuit on coil tested around 1.5ohm and secondary tested around 10k.

i had one of those in-line spark testers on the #1 cylinder. nothing. so i popped the cap and tried to look for a spark happening in between the points. still nothing. what could i look for next? i should be able to see a spark when the points open up right?

 

did another test. i pulled the coil wire off the cap and held it by the intake manifold. i see no spark coming from it. should i start looking at the + wire for the ignition coil?

 

i had the key in the on position. and was jumping the starter from the starter solenoid, and when i removed the screw driver the engine was still cranking over. i had to get it to stop by removing the negative battery terminal. now every time i try to reconnect the negative battery terminal it tries to weld itself to the terminal. i have no idea what could possibly be wrong. no idea where to start. please help

 

The starter solenoid on the passenger inner fender is likely stuck, that's why it is turning over as soon as the battery is connected. If you remove the red/blue wire from the solenoid and it still does this, then its definitely the solenoid. The contacts inside can become hot and "weld" together

You can tap it a few times and it may unstick, but it needs to be replaced.

 

I would, because it's likely to stick again or fail completely. If you don't replace it just make sure at least one of the battery terminals is where you can get it off in a hurry.

 

switched the solenoid from my 66. all better. thanks

now back to the coil. with the key on i’m getting 5.6 volts at the + terminal. i know there’s a resister inline but should i really be getting that low of volts?

 

You're a little low. 6-7 volts at the plus terminal.
If you temporarily bypass with a hot lead from the battery positive terminal..... you should definitely be
seeing a blue spark at the coil center terminal to ground.
You should probably check that out.

 

You're a little low. 6-7 volts at the plus terminal.

just checked again it is says 5.93. i read online and it says i should be getting voltage to the negative side as well? doesn’t make sense. but i’m getting 0.6 at the - side.

but if the coil tests good, and i’m getting voltage to the + side, why wouldn’t i be getting spark? i don’t know where to look next

 

The points have a gap and are opening and closing...... right?
That's what causes the secondary voltage spike, courtesy of the coil.
If the points are grounded to the distributor plate and the distributor housing is grounded to the engine block,
there's going to be a spark.....

 

yes, i gapped the points to .017 thousands with the points on the highest part of the lobe. it’s a very small opening and closing so it’s hard to tell by eye. i’ll attach a picture of my wiring.

 

You kinda have all the info you need….
If you make a temporary connection from the positive post of the battery to the plus side of the coil, every time you make and break the negative coil terminal to ground, you should be getting a significant spark at the coil center tower to ground.

 

Yes, a bad ground could be the cause. Clean the battery to block connection, and the ground from the passenger head to the firewall.
The points have to open and close; with the distributor cap off does the rotor turn when you crank the engine? Are the points clean? The coils often have a + and - marked on the coil terminals; do you have the wire from the distributor connected to - ?
BTW, good pictures and nice job cleaning that up.

 

cleaned all grounds, still no spark. i did also clean the points with some 180 sandpaper a while ago. yes positive wire is connected to wire harness wire, negative wire is going into distributor at the some connection that the condenser attached to

 

My guess is that the points are shorted to ground. Check the lead wire at the points and the proper positioning of the insulator.

 

woodchuck hopefully you’ve come to save the day. forgive me that i’m not familiar with points and condensor terminology. is the lead wire at the points is referring to where the condensor wire and coil wire attach to? i’m also not familiar with the insulator

 

Do you have a multimeter?

 

yes

 

i put the old condenser back in and it works. why did it have to be so simple… i’m going to go get an exchange for the one i got. and keep this one as a spare. also a new starter solenoid so my 66 isn’t dead in the water

 

thanks for the responses, car runs but doesn’t drive. it has some leaks, and brakes are extremely soft. it has factory 5 lug wheels with a single bowl master and front drums. my uncle wants me to find a kit that converts it to dual bowl and front disc. does anyone know of a kit i could look at? i’ve heard of kelsey hayes