A Stumper: Troubleshooting points

[Super A]

A while back I posted about replacing the point/condenser in my Super A and discovering the stud that holds the breaker point and condenser wire was stripped.

I got a new stud, cleaned everything up and put it all back together. The tractor ran fine afterward and I was proud of myself......so Saturday, I decided to use it to do some gardening. I cranked it up and let it idle while I got the hillers set up. I noticed at one point it wanted to run just a tiny bit rough but I didn't think anything of it. If I hadn't been right beside the engine setting the hillers I would probably have not noticed the tone of the engine change. But when I go in the seat, put it in reverse, and let out on the clutch it sputtered and died. Hasn't run since!

I've narrowed it down to a spark issue. I have power going to the coil, and from the coil to the stud on the side of the distributor. But if I manually open and close the points with the ignition on, I get a very intermittent, weak spark, and 95% of the time, no spark at all. If I remove the wire from the coil to the stud on the distributor and touch it to the stud, it sparks vigorously but the spark is yellow. I've filed on the points, took the stud and Bakelite washers apart to look for cracks/damage and didn't see anything. I also swapped the new condenser for an old IH one I had lying around--no change that I could tell. The parts I installed were Echlin from NAPA, not the cheaper kit like TSC sells.

I'm trying hard not to assume that the hoofbeats I hear are zebras but I'm starting to wonder if the coil is going bad. It's old, one of the IH coils with the + and - terminals facing towards the front of the tractor. I've never seen one fail outright like that though.

Thoughts/suggestions appreciated!
Al

[tst]

coil I bet, need a nice blue spark

[Rick Spivey]

Either coil, or somehow points are grounded (partially or intermittently). However, you said you had inspected the stud for possible grounding issues, so probably coil.

[Eugene]

Condenser breaking down, = yellow spark. Reinstall old condenser.

[Super A]

Either coil, or somehow points are grounded (partially or intermittently). However, you said you had inspected the stud for possible grounding issues, so probably coil.

Yeah my first thought was one of those little plastic insulators was cracked. But if one of them is, I can't see it!

Al

[JoeB]

This may not fix your problem, but I have a run of bad condensers lately, new out of package. These have came from Brillman and from Steiner, there isn't a NAPA within reasonable distance from me. I have a pile of old take-offs and that is my go-to fix if I am not getting spark after changing Points, Rotor, Condenser.

[inairam]

This may not fix your problem, but I have a run of bad condensers lately, new out of package. These have came from Brillman and from Steiner, there isn't a NAPA within reasonable distance from me. I have a pile of old take-offs and that is my go-to fix if I am not getting spark after changing Points, Rotor, Condenser.

same here

I started using NAPA for ignition parts. IH200 capacitor and CS1600 points both say NAPA ECHLIN. They are more expensive but less trouble.

[Super A]

This may not fix your problem, but I have a run of bad condensers lately, new out of package. These have came from Brillman and from Steiner, there isn't a NAPA within reasonable distance from me. I have a pile of old take-offs and that is my go-to fix if I am not getting spark after changing Points, Rotor, Condenser.

same here

I started using NAPA for ignition parts. IH200 capacitor and CS1600 points both say NAPA ECHLIN. They are more expensive but less trouble.

These were Echlin, brand new.

I replaced the coil, but I still couldn’t get power through the points. If I jumped between the “frame” of the two points with a screwdriver, I had lots of fire. I had some old points lying around so I filed the heck out of them, still nothing so I found another set and filed them and she fired up. I had already filed the new set a bit but for some reason they just wouldn’t let the fire get through.

Al