What is the best way to look for shorts/grounds. Thinking about getting a 9v battery to hook to one end of a wire and see if there is power to the other end? Car was running fine and then just stopped. I was going to cruising the coast and made it to about 15 miles from where I was staying and car just quit running. No fire to the ignition, but fire to the + side of the coil. Doing the usual stupid thing of replacing items rather than trouble shooting, we replaced the coil/points/distributor cap. Nothing happened. I think a wire shorted out and that stopped it. Car has had timing chain replaced one year ago. Distributor rotor was turning too. Now I will be out Over $200 for the tow back to the house, making my non-cruising experience cost about $1500 (motel, meals, parts, and wife's junkets to the casino's. This hobby is getting way too expensive. One question, would it do any good to go back to the ignition switch and start looking for grounds/shorts there?
Years ago I had a condenser take a dump at the track. Some nice guys there happened to have a couple spares.
There isn't a whole lot that can go wrong with a points system. Check for voltage at the coil positive with the ignition in the run position AND the crank position. The tests are detailed in this thread, http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?th...ystem-function-tests-and-modification.248990/ The coil is grounded by the points when they are closed. Check for continuity in that lead from points to the - side of the coil. Make sure both the lead from the - side of the coil and the lead from the condenser aren't touching the distributor base plate where they attach to the points. Check the point gap, that might seem obvious but many think you can just install points and they are preset to fire the engine, they aren't.
