Ford small block 302 coil problem, old style points/coil setup? Help!!

[Jerry Gerner 2]

Ok so my buddy's show truck is getting close to being drivable. I geuss the motor was wired and ran shortly a year ago. Tried firing it this week and the coil gets really hot and is now leaking oil, what could be causing this???? I didn't do the wiring so I don't knowhow they wired it into the painless wiring harness. By the way it's a sbf in a '89 Mazda B2200, everything is aftermarket, custom, not much if anything stock left on the truck. My question is, is it the distributor?, coil?, wiring??? It's got me stumped because they said they checked everything out. :banghead::angry:

 

[EddieS'04]

My guess is the coil is internaly shorted. There for the heat and the oil leak. Have you tried another coil? Need to look into if this is an old enough ignition that needs the external load resistor. If it is it may be missing or bad.



I would buy the pointless kit from petronix. Converts the distributor and ignition to solid state, for about $100.

 

[Jerry Gerner 2]

Tried a different coil and did the same thing. Not sure on year of motor, what years had the load resistor's for the coil? Than you Eddie, you're always the on I can count on for electrical help. :haveabeer::supercool:

 

[Jim Johnson]

Jerry, I know that the 289 and at least early 302 with point ignition had a resistor on the primary lead to the coil. It was originally built into the 12V positive wire, but was prone to burning out & was usually then replaced by owners & mechanics with a regular wire and discrete resistor. I believe it dropped the voltage to 6, but I'm not sure.

 

[EddieS'04]

As Jim said. Not sure of the specs. of resitance. It was a fairly large ceramic one. Possible rated at 20watts or more. It would get very hot.

May have to find some info on the net. Or some old timer. It will possible still be used with the petronix conversion. it still uses the stock coil.

I will see if I have something in some of my aged tune up manuals. I will have to shake the dust off of them...:rofl:

 

[Jerry Gerner 2]

Thanks guys!!!:haveabeer::banana:

 

[Jerry Gerner 2]

Ok, found the points are in the closed position causing all the juice to go into the coil. Does this said right???:banana:

 

[Richard Kolb]

No real clue, but shouldn't you be calling that a b5000?

 

[Jerry Gerner 2]

It started off a B2200, now it has custom made frame, widened body 4"'s, '07 F150 front clip narrowed and layin' body on 22"'s. :banana:

 

[Jeff Jolley]

Been along time since I worked on one of these type systems here's a couple ideas going from memory:



Check to see if the coil is actually wired properly and that the wires are not reversed.



Does the coil get hot with just the ignition on or does it only get hot when turning trying to start the motor?



You said the points are in the closed position, did you check to make sure the contacts had not welded themselves together?



Check the wiring from the coil to the distributor, also some of the older vehicles required a condensor/capcitor on the distrubtor this will come with the points usually.



These are fairly simple systems and if the coil is getting that hot then it is either shorted or wired wrong.

 

[Scott Tanner]

if the points don't open, then it would affect the coil as you stated... i would grab a duraspark out of a junkyard, 74 to 84 vintage, plug it in and go... there are wiring diagrams to facilitate these on the web... A pertronics is an ace way to go, too. with the points, there has to be a 20 thousandths gap, or 25-32 degrees of dwell... HTH