Electronic ignition again resolved

[Cash4Toys]

Made the trip to friends place to figure out the MH 44 EI ignition issues. Had to see the issue for myself 1st hand, so turned it over. Spark was in fact jumping from spark plug ports on cap to hold down clips, some even to the head! Removed distributer cap and with an ohmmeter checked the distributer plate to battery post ground and had some fluctuating resistance, .999 to 2.99. Checked the 2 screws holding the plate and had .01 resistance, same as when the ohmmeters probs were in contact to each other. Removed one screw and found it had a plastic/fiber washer on it?. Replaced with correct lock washer, repeated on second screw. Rechecked ground to distributer plate and had .01. Was a fairly new coil but removed the wires and checked ohms from - to + and had 1.5. For a 4 cylinder was supposed to be 3.0. He had another new 12 volt coil and upon checking that one we had 3.0 as required. Removed the old, installed new. Hooked wires up to coil and checked voltage on the battery, which was 12.4 V. Checked voltage on coil by using volt meter setting, black to - on coil and red to + side and then turned on ignition switch on long enough to get a reading and only had 10.3 V. Bypassed the ignition switch by using jumper wire to the + side and then had 12.4 V at the coil. Went and got a new switch and a new set of Pertonix plug wires. Installed both items and all is fine, runs pertty darn good considering it was stuck, as in pistons and had 3 valves stuck as well. There was what appeared to be Pertronix plug wires on it, as out of curiousty I checked the resistance on them and the new out of the box wires, and they were pretty much the same. Timing was spot on when checked it. One little issue I had was when it first ran, it was only hitting on 2 cylinders? Thought what the heck, low compression on the other 2? Had a cup of coffee and talked about some other things and then it hit me. I put the dang wires on the cap in the wrong rotation after I had found #1 TDC rotor location, like a fool I never confirmed distributor rotation. Live and learn!
So, anyway, I think it was the coil, what say you?

 

[used red MN]

Glad you got it resolved. Seems I am eating some crow on this one. Lesson to learn, the recommendation of the factory trained technician has a good chance of being the trouble-shooting step that has the greater potential to solve the problem. “Pertronix tech says bad ground”
Here is a link to the post with the confusing symptoms. Post describing symptoms

 

[Cash4Toys]

Oh I don't think anyone needs to eat crow on this one. I think the bad ground caused the intermittent spark and then having the wrong coil and voltage to the coil caused the spark jumping issues as well. My bad was thinking the guy that previously put this on it did everything right. I learned a lot from all the comments of those that responded and hopefully others that followed this did as well!

 

[MarkB_MI]

Glad you got it fixed. My suspicion is the bad ground was causing the spark to occur at random times.

You're not the only guy who has installed plug wires in reverse rotation; I've made that same mistake. My Ford ran pretty good, just didn't have any power!

 

[Janicholson]

With the bizarre symptoms, all ideas were welcomed (good tactic). and grand resolution. Jim

 

[JMOR]

Made the trip to friends place to figure out the MH 44 EI ignition issues. Had to see the issue for myself 1st hand, so turned it over. Spark was in fact jumping from spark plug ports on cap to hold down clips, some even to the head! Removed distributer cap and with an ohmmeter checked the distributer plate to battery post ground and had some fluctuating resistance, .999 to 2.99. Checked the 2 screws holding the plate and had .01 resistance, same as when the ohmmeters probs were in contact to each other. Removed one screw and found it had a plastic/fiber washer on it?. Replaced with correct lock washer, repeated on second screw. Rechecked ground to distributer plate and had .01. Was a fairly new coil but removed the wires and checked ohms from - to + and had 1.5. For a 4 cylinder was supposed to be 3.0. He had another new 12 volt coil and upon checking that one we had 3.0 as required. Removed the old, installed new. Hooked wires up to coil and checked voltage on the battery, which was 12.4 V. Checked voltage on coil by using volt meter setting, black to - on coil and red to + side and then turned on ignition switch on long enough to get a reading and only had 10.3 V. Bypassed the ignition switch by using jumper wire to the + side and then had 12.4 V at the coil. Went and got a new switch and a new set of Pertonix plug wires. Installed both items and all is fine, runs pertty darn good considering it was stuck, as in pistons and had 3 valves stuck as well. There was what appeared to be Pertronix plug wires on it, as out of curiousty I checked the resistance on them and the new out of the box wires, and they were pretty much the same. Timing was spot on when checked it. One little issue I had was when it first ran, it was only hitting on 2 cylinders? Thought what the heck, low compression on the other 2? Had a cup of coffee and talked about some other things and then it hit me. I put the dang wires on the cap in the wrong rotation after I had found #1 TDC rotor location, like a fool I never confirmed distributor rotation. Live and learn!
So, anyway, I think it was the coil, what say you?

Good that you got it all worked out, but....I'm one that likes to learn from my experiences and when a person touches/changes/alters more than one thing at a time, in the end he doesn't really know what fixed it. Was it #1, 2, 3, 4, ? Never know, now.