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Michael Sheik 08-09-2007 04:41:06 199.153.205.246 26575 Report to Moderator	I have a Ford service manual for the 59 trucks and was reading thru it on the ignition. It follows the same line of you-all's replies concerning how to test to see if coil, points are fried. I pulled plug wire off at top middle of distributor and held 3/16 inch away from ground and spun the engine over with key on. Book said if coil was ok that it would spark. It did not. Must be a fried coil. Could also be points are toast but won't know that until I put on a new coil and add a resistor. Sure hope that fixes it. [Reply]  [No Email]
Bob 08-09-2007 08:05:57 69.178.229.154 26578 Report to Moderator	Re: '55 F-600 Coil/Points in reply to Michael Sheik, 08-09-2007 04:41:06   Why not do a simple test to narrow down what's wrong, before throwing money at the problem? Put a test light to the points side of the coil, turn the ignition on, and crank it over. What do you see? The test light SHOULD flash on and off as the points open and close. If the light NEVER lights, you have no ignition power, a bad (open) coil or a short in the distributor/points/condensor area. If the light comes on and NEVER flashes, you have an "open" between the coil and the points, mis-set points that never close, or dirty, corroded points. If the light DOES flash, and the coil isn't throwing a spark, likely the coil is bad. A partially-shorted condensor can wause a weak spark, too. Oh, yeah... IIRC, the ballast resistor on those trucks is in the form of a special resistance wire from the ignition switch to the coil... looks pretty much like all the other wires in the harness, but probably cloth covered.   [Reply]  [No Email]
Michael Sheik 08-09-2007 08:59:24 199.153.205.246 26579 Report to Moderator	Re: Re: '55 F-600 Coil/Points in reply to Bob, 08-09-2007 08:05:57   Thanks Bob I am always open to more info and will try this this weekend and let you know next week.   [Reply]  [No Email]