[jbrewer]

Hi Bob

Good summary. To be sure, I'm thinking that you did provide an alternative source of 12 V to the primary of the coil as we talked about.


I'm glad you didn't have an aneurysm after what sounds to be a backfire thru the carb. I've done that under a hood when I was 15 or so, twisting a distributor while a friend cranked the engine. It does get your attention.

I think we're back to the diagnosis that Dart1917 made, since it now appears the ignition system (coil/points/condenser) works OK when there's adequate voltage on the primary of the coil.

So... it still could be the ignition switch, but I think Dart got you in the right direction and the root of the issue is still probably the lack of a compression release. In the case of your test, it sound like you got a nice fat spark before top dead center when the coil got a healthy 12V.

I'm betting if you fix the ACR, the battery voltage wont sag under cranking, and your switch will provide enough voltage to fire the plug (you already know this as you've seen the plug fire well with it laying on the top of the head).

Let us know how it goes!

PS: Yes, there's 12V thru the switch to the coil whenever the key is in the START and RUN position in normal operation, none when the key is in the OFF position.