Hi I'm Harmony, this is my first classic car, I'm pretty new to this. I got this old Chevy that had been sitting for years but only had 80k miles, and it ran ok when i got it (the carburetor had some immediately noticeable issues) but I was pretty hopeful due to the low miles and seemingly simple design.
My 1978 Chevy Luv wouldn't start now. I replaced my plugs, spark plug wires, distributor cap, points, condenser, starter, ignition coil, and I still don't get a spark. When I turn the key to the on position my resistance thing (i forget the name, it lowers the voltage when running to preserve the points) on top of the ignition coil starts smoking.
I had the battery on a charger while I was installing the new ignition coil. When I connected the positive (feed direct from the battery through the ignition switch) the draw on the charger jumped to max pull, which I assumed indicated a short somewhere. So i disconnected it. Then I took a piece of wire and touched it from the positive side of the battery to the (now disconnected) positive feed to the ignition coil (to see if the short was in the wire running from positive of battery to ignition to coil) and no power draw... so no short there. Then I did the same from the positive of the battery to the positive of the coil... big draw again. Then I did this from the battery to the wire end connecting to the negative side of the ignition coil (but for some reason it tests positive on my tester) that leads to the distributor and got the same draw... so the short is somewhere after the ignition coil. I disconnect the end touching the distributor and don't get the draw....---------so the short is in (or after?) the distributor--------
Also when I have the key in the on position, all wires connected, and I flick the points connection get a very little spark between the points (I mean little like silent, only visible in the dark)
So I can't figure what's going on here, maybe its the resistance thing on the ignition coil, maybe it's a short in the distributor. I tried to provide a lost of information so you can get a better idea of the situation. let me know if you can offer any info/help/ideas, please and thank you. It would mean the world to me
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