Ignition Coil Wiring

[Stage1Luke]

Hey guys,

Can anyone tell me how the wiring looks like for the ignition coil? Is the cable coming from the distributor (not the spark cable!) connected to plus or minus?

I had to disconnect it and when I connected it again, the engine would not start.

Many thanks for your help!
Luke

[map1275]

Low tension lead to coil Negative.

Unless your car has been played with, the Male/female Lucar terminal arrangement should prevent this situation from occurring.

[Stage1Luke]

Thanks!

Will try this now and post the result.

Cheers!

[Stage1Luke]

Tried that. No luck.

Maybe some background info. I replaced the metal gasket under the manifold and had to remove the manifold with the carbs. Doing that I lost some fluid (gas?) from the carbs. May this be the reason, why it is not starting?

Later, I carefully cleaned the manifold and carbs with a high pressure washer. Also a potential reason?

Finally, I mounted the manifold and carbs back on the engine and connected all pipes (I am quite sure I did this right...). After I connected the wires back to the coil, I tried starting it. The wires were quite hot, so I stopped trying. After checking the wiring again, I tried to start the engine once more. After a few seconds something blew up, there was a "ziish" sound and some smoke coming from either the coil or the Fuse which sits right next to the coil. May this be a potential reason? How can I check whether the fuse is broken?

There are three wires on the coil. One coming from the distributor, which I connected now to the negative pole. One is coming from the above mentioned fuse (connected to positive) and one is going to another switch or fuse which is located underneath the window. I think this cable should be connected to positive as well, right?

Sorry, I am not a mechanic and always try do things on my own. But now I am lost. Seems like there are too many malfunction sources...

Any further suggestions are much appreciated!

Best
Luke

[map1275]

Test if you have spark at any of the leads.

If no spark, test if you have power getting to the coil (with a test light). If you have no power getting to the coil, test the other side of the ballast resistor. You may well have damaged the ballast resistor. Unusual but not impossible.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if you have water in each cylinder as well. You will need to pull out all the sparking plugs, clean them and wind the motor over to blow out any remaining water. Then refit the plugs.

[Stage1Luke]

Thanks for your feedback.

I checked the spark cables. No spark coming from them.

I checked the ballast resistor. Incoming power around 13V, outgoing 5V. May this be the reason?

[firemanshort]

Ballast resister is probably OK.

I think it is supposed to step things down to 9 volts but I may be wrong.

To trouble shoot - you can bypass the resister and see if that makes it start. On some cars, the ignition circuit bypasses the resistor to make sure that the coil gets a good strong current during the start crank session.

If you stay bypassed on the coil for a long time - you risk overheating the coil. But it should do fine for a few minutes of trouble shooting in the driveway.

[Stage1Luke]

Thanks for your comments guys!

I found the evildoer. The condenser inside the distributor blew up. I opened the cap and saw dark and typically electro smelly fluid around the condenser and one of the leads melted. I must have mixed-up the leads, when connecting them back to the coil,

I called a classic Jaguar garage who had them on stock (lucky me!). Not easy to get these specific parts here on a bank holiday...

After I replaced it, I could start the car better than ever before. I also change the distributor cap that I had bought some months back.

Having said that, now the engine seems running only on a couple cylinders. Before it was running just fine. So next step will be finding out why...

I will let you know the outcome. But in the meantime, maybe you have an idea...?

Cheers
Luke