I got all my cables cleaned up, and with my meter I checked and have good
ground. After a few turns to loosen itself up and get the cricks out, the
engine now spins up very nicely. It didn't start, but it spun nicely.
Checked the cylinders and no gas was getting to them, so pulled the carb
apart and made a few minor adjustments. Put it back on and cranked it a few
times, and VIOLA, we had gas at each cylinder. But still wouldn't start.
Pulled a plug again and checked for spark, but got none. Not weak, but none
period.
Now I am confused, because prior to body restoration, about a year ago, we
put in NOS coil, condensor and points. (The jeep ran at this time, as well.)
So I got my meter back out to make sure I was getting power everywhere.
I had 24.7V to the ignigtion switch; 24.6V to the "+" terminal on the coil,
and 24.2V to the center outlet on the coil. No measureable current on the
"-" terminal on the coil. Should there be current on this terminal?
So now I'm convinced my plug wires might not be seated and making contact.
So I tighten them all up, making sure all are touching, and meter says they
have continuity.
Just for kicks, before I put the distributor cap back on, I have my buddy
light up the switch and turn the engine over, so I can look at the points.
There appears to be a bright blue-white spark in the gap as it turns.
Then I decide to give the points one last adjustment for proper gap, but I
didn't know the ignition switch was still on. No sparking occurred while I
worked on the points, so I'm not sure I did anything wrong, but when I got
the gap set to spec, I had him turn it over again, and this time there was
no spark. NONE.
As I fiddled with things, I noticed the coil was building up a great deal of
heat; so hot you didn't want to touch it. It got to the point that a very
small amount of what appeared to be oil was boiling (bubbling) in the top
center portion of the coil, where the spring contacts.
Could I have shorted the coil, or something else drastic? This just doesn't
sound like a good scenario.
As always your help is appreciated. Sorry for the length of this post, but I
just couldn't cover it all any quicker.
Mark McKee
'52 M38A1 (MD 22468)
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