Posted by Keith in Washington on Sunday, August 19, 2007 at 13:43:58 :
In Reply to: weak spark posted by Kaegi on Saturday, August 18, 2007 at 23:56:22 :
Fred on Whidbey has a good idea. I had a lot of problems starting my ffpw for several years. To get it started I had to run a wire straight from the battery to the coil which bypassed the ignition switch and etc. It was a weak spark and was a real pain. The battery was also running down all the time.
I solved the problem by replacing the voltage regulator which was original to the truck (1951). No problems since then. Battery is never run down and always starts well. I was not getting enough charge to keep the battery up. In fact I was running on the battery alone at times so it was killing the battery. An easy check is to put your truck facing a wall at night. Start it and turn on the lights. Rev the engine up slowly and watch the head lights they should get brighter at 1000 RPM or there abouts as the voltage regulator kicks in. If you do not see this you need to check the voltage regulator possibly replacing it or resetting it. If you are still running the original generator generator check the brushes as Fred stated but those generators have very few problems and last for ever. You also may have to repolarize the generator if you have disconnected the electrical system. You do that at the voltage regulator by putting a jumper between two of the posts. You will need to look up which two to jumper as I can not remember at the moment.
Also check the wire from the distributor to the coil especially where it goes through the distributor body. Make sure it is not partially shorted there and that the connections on both ends are clean.