will a 56 tbird or merc temp guage work?

-Gary Burnette-

If you are interested in having the clock serviced I can recommend a place called "The Clockworks".They have a website.Basic clean and service with minor repairs is around $60.00.They should  be able to do something if you tell them you want it to work on 12 volts.They did mine-very good with a 1 year warranty.

  

my temp gauge is also unplugged, i have a under dash mounted gauge from previous owner and I will also unplug the clock until I can get a reducer, it doesn't keep great time but I set it to correct time at car shows and the ticking gets the judges attention.

Thanks Mark!

Claim to fame is the car was used as an extra in the movie Diner with Micky Rourke, Steve Gootenburg, Paul Riser and Kevin Bacon.

You also need one for temp gauge and clock.I would unplug clock for now.

  

I got a voltage reducer on the gas gauge, the radio is unhooked for now and I didn't know about the clock. does the clock require a reducer or a polarity change?

Claim to fame is the car was used as an extra in the movie Diner with Micky Rourke, Steve Gootenburg, Paul Riser and Kevin Bacon.

Great to hear.Now did you do something to cut the gauge feed to 6 volts?Is your charging system working?Dont forget your radio and clock need to be on 6 volts also.

  

Victory guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, after a bad "new" solenoid and a bad ignitor I'm finally back on the road.

My neighbor came up this evening and I had it wired right but the points weren't firing so he got the points set right and it fired up, I changed the points to the ignitor and the ballast and all is done except putting my wires back in their proper places.

Thanks for everybody's help.

Claim to fame is the car was used as an extra in the movie Diner with Micky Rourke, Steve Gootenburg, Paul Riser and Kevin Bacon.

Its your car that won`t start, so when someone tries to help you make the effort on your part to give an answer to a direct question.

To get a spark at the sparkplug end you need a complete circuit. Bat pos term to coil pos post. Coil neg post to distributor. Small wire inside distributor to ground the points. With a complete circuit the points opening will break the circuit and cause a spark. If the coil and condensor are good the 12 volts from the battery is stepped up to 20,000 volts.

QUESTION. With the jumper, bat plus to coil positive post can you read voltage from coil positive post to ground? From coil neg post to ground? From small wire in distributor to ground?

Until you do get a complete circuit FORGET your Alt, radio, ignition switch, etc etc etc. Once you can produce a spark at the points, ask more help. Pete

 

OK, I should have proofread my post. If the points were grounded at the pivot, or any where else, the test light would not be on. For the points to be at fault, there must be a reason why they don't make contact, a film of something on them, or dirty. Tom



Tom from the chiggerfarm located in the beautiful Heart of Central Texas

When you cannot dazzle others with your brilliance, baffle them with bullcorn!

I haven't gone back and reread every post this morning, but if I remember correctly you had voltage to the coil but no spark at the points. Probing the points arm with the voltmeter or test light should tell you if the primary wire from the coil to distributor has continuity. We sold a lot of those primary wires at the Ford dealer where I worked. It is attached to the points and works back and forth with the distributor advance and eventually breaks the wire inside. Usually it causes an intermittent problem, but if the wire is good and the points are working, the test light will flash on and off as the points open and close. If the test light stays on when the points are closed then either the wire or points are bad. You should also see a spark at the points when you turn the engine or open and close them by hand. In rare cases I have seen new points that simply did not work. I never had time to try to examine them to see why, but maybe they could be grounded at the pivot when they were assembled? Hope this helps. Tom



Tom from the chiggerfarm located in the beautiful Heart of Central Texas

When you cannot dazzle others with your brilliance, baffle them with bullcorn!