Hi all,

Last fall on my last drive of the year, my coil slipped out of it's bracket and grounded out on the tin. I got it running again and limped it home, but it was running like crap. Over the winter I pulled the points and condensor and replaced it with a pertronix, and I also replaced the coil, but it's still running pretty poorly.

I'm thinking that the ignition switch may have got slightly fried. If that happened and the coil isn't getting a full 12 volts could that cause poor spark and crappy running? What would be the best way to test this? I'm thinking measure the voltage at the - terminal of the coil, and maybe try hooking the coil straight to the battery and see if running improves. Are these good ideas? Does anybody have any other ideas, things to test, etc?

As always, thanks for all the help!

Look at the hot lead that goes to the coil to see if its fried, cooked, insulation bubbled. That could be the problem if you dead shorted it. Replace that part of the wiring harness which is the alt, coil, tach harness witha new one from Jeff B.

Geoff

Your ign' switch is fine.
You would've known if it had burned wires that far- would be just about impossible to breathe in the car from the burning wire.
Also, measuring 'voltage' may not do much good.
Even a little tiny strand of wire should read 12 volts if its hooked to a 12V battery- the voltage is the "potential difference" between your power source (batt) and ground (neg batt-car) which is 12V.
Thus if any part of the wire is attached to the battery and the battery is grounded it should read 12V.
(unless you measure the circuit after a rheostat, regulator, transformer...).
You can check resistance, but I don't know what you'd expect to see for a figure there.
Do this: Get your car running, then jump a wire from the + battery terminal to the + connection on the coil.
This will power your coil straight off the battery.
Then disconnect your + connection wire from the IGN to coil...DONT LET IT GROUND!
See if it fixed your prob...if not check the timing..you had the distributor out right?
Thats my guess.
-Bob O

Well, I got it fixed, and it was timing. I had set it not more than a couple of weeks ago, but my marks must be off. I backed off the timing a little bit and the idle smoothed right out. Took it for a little drive, it ran strong, good power, no backfiring. It made my day!!! Now to just get those damn brakes working better. Thanks for the help guys!