Engine turns over. still no spark. power to the coil and connection to the distributer checked. Points checked. New HT leads also. what have I missed. Engine is a 3.5 v8 in a defender 110 by the way. Help fellas would be appreciated.

have you got the rotor in???

coil could be nacked or there may be a bias resistor blown. Have you checked that the coil gets power when cranked as some use a different circuit for that.

check the coil by connecting a plug lead to it and flicking the live feed off the coils terminal. there should be a healthy spark (loud) when the power taken away.

[Edited on 28/3/07 by Mr Whippy]

assuming it is wired correclty


1. check that you have 12 V on + of coil.
2. rotate ending so ponts are closed - you should be albe to use a screwdriver to open the points
3. get leat from coil and remove from distributor cap, hold close to an earth eg. engine manifold.
4. open points - this should produce a spark; if not, coil is bad or condenser is bad, more likley the former.

5. if no spark, remove all wiring from coil measreu primar resistance - shold be 3.0 ohm for non ballast, 1.5 ohm for ballast. if open cricuit. bin it. is 0 ohm bin it.

6. measure resistance of sencodndary. should be several 10s of K ohm, if 0 bin it, if open cirtcuit bin it.

7. now see if points gap is set correctly and timing.

8. check that cap is good, pay attention to the sporing loaded carbon brush and rotor arm is good - some after market rotor arms do not make good contact with the cap carbon brush - check that is not the case.


9. after doing all that, post again.

Cheers, will go through those things and let you know how I get on.

got it running at last. Small issue of the points not being connected properly. running sweet as a nut now. Cheers for the help fellas.