I agree, make sure the battery is fully charged and then check battery voltage without a load and then while cranking.  If it drops under 9v, it's time to replace the battery.

Re the resistor, it does look like the instructions say it can be left out with the components you are using.  The wire being described as a resistance wire in the diagram is probably left in by mistake, as Gene pointed out. If you want no confusion, contact Accel for clarification.

I did have a bad battery cause this same situation with my ignition.  The battery was good enough to turn the engine but voltage dropped low enough that the ignition did not work.


Lawrenceville, GA

Well, there you have it. You have a bad/undercharged battery or too much resistance in the circuit. If your battery tests good, you might have bad connections or components in the wiring. Start checking backwards from the coil to see where the voltage increases: At the input side of the resistor? At the ignition switch? 

Just had the wife crank it while I checked voltage at the coil and it's only 5vdc when ON and 3vdc cranking. 

So I looked in to this and I left the resistor wire in the circuit when I did this conversion originally. It is reading 1.6 ohms of resistance. Is the consensus to leave it in? Try without? The system is still on the stock generator. 

Thanks to everyone for the help so far. 

It is a whole bunch confusing. You have to pull each item out.

The system is overly complicated compared to PERTRONIX II (IMO).

____________________________

It is a LITTLE confusing. It is obvious that the words referencing the resistance wire weren't removed when the resistance symbol was removed from figure #1to make figure #3. The "exceptions" paragraph is clear enough to explain the mistake. 

The ACCEL INSTR SHEET IS CONFUSING -

____________________________

Thanks Charlie. The words just got blurred when I zoomed in.
By the way, I looked for info on the 8140 coil, and it says it it has 1.4 ohm resistance in the primary circuit. Not too different from many other coils.
As a side note, Pertronix says that adding resistance ahead of the coil won't affect normal performance on their units and can help the unit run cooler. They said that it "might" affect high RPM performance. 

If you zoom in on figure 3. it says "oem primary resistance wire."

That would be one of the contradictions that Sandbird mentions.

It does say in various other places that it is not needed with the 8140 so it probably is ok but clarification from Accel is needed.


Lawrenceville, GA

Directly under the paragraph about resistance there is a paragraph titled "Exceptions" that says you can use battery voltage with one of Accel's approved coils, and the 8140 used by the OP is one of the approved coils. I can't read the words pointing to the incoming wire on figure #3, but it doesn't show a resistance or ballast resistor. If the problem were mine, I would put a set of points/condenser in the distributor to try.