Burned some wires

So I put my F134 back in my 64 CJ5 and I guess I got my wires wrong because the wire leading out of the distributor and up to the coil just fried as soon as I turned the ignition to on. I did not even try to crack it.

That wire was intended to go to the negative side of the coil right?

I guess this means I am putting in a new condenser and that wire at a min. The coil seems like it was not even phased and the points look ok. I am not sure where I am going to get the specific wire to replace it with.

What is yalls thoughts on the matter?

 

Should work with just any old wire pretty much.


Hard to understand why it would "fry" unless your wire was in very poor condition, or it was fed from unregulated full voltage
I'm assuming you had a hot wire to one side of the coil, and this distributor wire came off the opposite side... i.e. with the coil windings in the circuit.

 

I just rewired it and I still have a problem. I have definitely done something wrong but it is odd, because I had all my wires labelled.

I am not sure why it fried either but it burnt straight through the wire and melted all the plastic off from the coil all the way to the points.

I swapped out the wire, the condensor and put the wire going to the positive side of the coil this time. The wire is not hot when the ignition is on, but if I run a wire from the hot side of the battery over to it, it sparks. So somehow unless I don't understand the way it works, my coil is grounded on the positive side also.

I am probably going to run a wire directly from the battery to the coil positive and see if that helps. Just had to take a break so I could think it over

 

make sure you use a ballast resistor if the coil does not have it built in . NAPA has great ignition parts. Burnt up the coil and relay

 

That is the funny thing I think the coil is fine, but its no problem because I have a NAPA right down the road and I have a spare coil.

How would you know if the coil had one built in?

For the record, I have the wire from the distributor running to the negative side of the coil now, as a test and it does not spark or give me any trouble - if I try to move it to the positive side, where I thought it belongs it sparks right away. And by spark I do not mean the spark plugs work, I mean it throws a spark where I touch the wires together, I have the wire cut coming from the distro so I can test it. It definitely does not like going to the positive side of the coil.

I must have something really wrong, but I am a little confused how to work out what.

Just as a side not I have zero spark at the plugs. But that is not really surprising considering all the other stuff I have going on

 

" but if I run a wire from the hot side of the battery over to it, it sparks."

Just to clarify, the wire from coil to distributor is grounded any time the points are closed. That is it's proper function.

The other (+) side of the coil receives power from the ignition switch. (Possibly via a ballast resistor in some models)

 

Confirm that you have the battery connected properly. Negative battery cable to engine and frame ground. Another ground wire (10 ga) from tub to frame. Ignition wire to one side of ballast then other side of ballast to the POS (+) terminal of the coil. The Neg terminal of the coil goes to the dist points. If the coil has the resistor built in, it will be marked (for use with internal resistor only) or something similar.

 

Yes the battery is connected correctly. I have my main ground going to the engine block right at the generator attachment point. That is what is confusing me - this was a 100% running engine and everything worked perfectly, I pulled the engine to change the rear seal and put it back in. I thought exactly like I took it out because I labelled everything but I have clearly done something wrong

This is what I have worked out - the wire from the distributor does go to the negative side of the coil. I am going to remove all extra wires and try to work with just a wire from battery to the positive side of the coil and the wire on the negative right to the distributor. That should work. I realize that is going to burn up some points pretty quick but I need to figure out what is going on.

I put a test light on yesterday and my ignition wire to the positive side of the coil is hot with the key on, and not hot with the key off. That should be fine in truth.

 

You may have the ignition switch that DOES NOT supply power to the coil in the CRANK position. If this is the case you will have to supply it with an ignition by-pass wire.

 

Ok that sounds like it might be right Walt. Will my wire direct from the battery do the trick until I can work it all out?

 

Yes but you don't want to leave the coil wire 12Volt hot very long (running or not) as it will soon burn the points.

 

Too late ;P

It did not fire at all though, so I am guessing they were burned already. I will get some more and continue the quest for spark.

 

search the web you can test points condenser and coil with an ohm meter . also might wanna check the voltage regulator there should be no spark or drain when you connect the battery