who can check a 6 v coil ?

In my area, I have NAPA, Auto Zone, OReilly, and Pep Boys. Can any or all check my 6 volt coil ?

if its backfiring you must not have the timing correct, but that says you have spark to the plugs.

You are looking for a "growler" for testing coils. If you walked into any of the stores you mentioned, they would say "What is dat? A muffler?"

Find a repair shop that has been in business for at least 50 years. If you are lucky, the owner hasn't gotten around to throwing it out yet.

It might be possible to have it tested at an alternator/starter shop. I dunno. And you might find a growler at an automotive flea market.

as far as i know a growler is for checking armatures,and i have used them.

You may be right but growlers can test other coils and windings such as field coils. It checks for insulation damage and shorts. The last coil tester I saw was at the local village garage that opened in 1910. The original owner was still around during the '50's and I thought he called it a growler. I was a pre-teen then.

It's still a two man garage and has had only three owners. I haven't seen the coil tester recently, or should I say, in the last 30 years.

couv: Why don't you just do something the guys recommend. You have spark, or it wouldn't backfire. Your timing advance is off substancially. The guys told you what to do in a previous thread. Why not just do as they told you?

My experience, if a 4 cylinder gas Farmall has spark at the right time, and has gas coming to the cylinders, it will go. Maybe not very well but it will start and run well enough for fine tuning.

By the way, best check going for a coil, doesn't matter whether 6 or 12, is 1 hour running.

YOU YOURSELF can perform a simple test to see if its BAD if you have an ohm meter, HOWEVER that wont tell you if its really GOOD............

An ohm meter across its small + and - terminals should read in the vicinity of 1.25 to under 2 ohms BUT IF ITS AN OPEN CIRCUIT THE COIL IS BADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

An ohm meter placed between the HV output terminal and one of the small terminals should read in the neighborhood of say 5000 to 10000 ohms depending on the coil, BUT IF ITS AN OPEN CIRCUIT ITS BADDDDDDDDDDDD..

HOWEVER even if it passes BOTH tests above (primary and secondary winding contuniuty) it can still fail under HV and/or high temp conditions which it often does cuz HV breakdown happens i.e. a spark will jump where its NOT supposed to due to insulation failure.

You can also run a bench test by applying but then opening a connection of 6 volts across its small + and - terminals and each time the circuit is broken a HV spark should jump from a coil wire attached to its HV terminal to a battery post. You can do the same type coil test on the tractor

Heres my Ignition Troubleshooting Procedure

http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=farmall&th=5745

John T
John Ts Troubleshooting

I got the dist to rotate, checked #1 TDC with the stiff wire, and rotor was pointing between #1 and 3 in cap. I rotated the dist until points sparked. Locked the dist down.

I am hand cranking it till I get the starter back from the shop. The bendix has a booger in it and it hangs up.

Tried the short shot of ether in the cleaner. Tried the main carb mixture screw at 1 turn out, and at 2 1/4 turns out.

Did I miss any of the suggestions ?

I think you're casting about a little, and might have missed some finer points. From your description, it sounds like your rotor is nowhere near where it needs to be, leaving your distributor about 90 degrees out of time one way or the other, which will definitely make for a backfire.

1) #1 (the front cylinder) needs to be at TDC on the COMPRESSION stroke. With the ignition OFF, use your hand crank bring the motor around until you feel it forcing air out of the plug hole on #1 and then use the fan as a handle and your wire to bring it to TDC.

2) With the motor resting at that point, make a crayon or other mark on your distributor body about even with the cap on the tower connected to your #1 plug wire. Pull your distributor cap, loosen the base and turn the distributor until your rotor is 10 or 15 degrees counterclockwise before the mark you just made. Replace the cap. From there you can use either a) the coil wire or b) #1 plug wire, or c) your #1 plug to finish the static timing.

a) To use the coil wire, hook the end that would normally go into the center tower of the distributor cap under one of the clips holding the cap down so that there is a slight air gap between the terminal on the wire and a good ground. With the ignition ON, turn the distributor body COUNTERclockwise, moving the tower for the #1 plug closer to where the rotor is resting inside, until you get a spark. Remove the cap and you should see the rotor pointing pretty nearly directly at your crayon mark.

b) With the coil wire connected between the coil and cap, take the PLUG end of the #1 wire and clip it to the distributor body as described above. With the ignition ON, turn as described until you get a spark and stop.

c) as in b except that you'll leave the plug on the end of the wire and rest the plug on a ground (edge of the plug hole often works) so that it will spark when the points open.

Go at it any one of these three ways and your static timing should be good. Verify that your rotor is pointing to #1, double check the order of your plug wires, and give it a go.

Hi Wardner: I've seen various old pieces of electrical test equipment back then myself. A simple square wave generator would test a coil. The output from a set of mechanical points is a simple square wave. A tester only needs a square wave at a very low frequency to equal what might be needed for a coil on a gas tractor engine. That low frequency could give off a growling noise if electrical parts are mounted in a hardwood box as some of the very old test equipment was. I'll bet most on this forum never saw a hand crank phone. When getting an incomming call from an old weak person who could not crank fast enough, our phone would emit a low growling noise... Maybe something like what you are talking about. The hardwood box acted as a great speaker. By the way, Some of the guys would use these old hand crank phones to shock wet ground to help bring night crawlers to the surface. Farm boys ain't dumb when it's time to go fishing... ag ret.

Like others have suggested, you need to get timing correct, rotor pointing to number one when on tdc and points just opening with distributor rotating in normal direction. Some time ago, some one ran into a problem with the new set of points he had purchased where the rub bar that opens points was manufactured incorrectly and he could not get it in time. At any rate , if rotor is not pointing to correct cyl when points are breaking it won't run. Far as growler, they are used to detect shorted windings (shorted to each other not grounded to core or housing) wether external as in a starter or generator armature or a internal one as in electric motors. I have one for checking armatures in my tools. Also have a graham coil tester, problem is you need specs for each individual coil to make a meaninful assesment of coils condition unless it is completely shot. Then a ohmmeter and or a hook up to correct voltage battery will do as well.

Are ya'll talking about a MEGGER? If that is what is in reference, they are readily available. A MEGGER is an insulation tester (dielectric leakage). It is hand cranked and outputs about 1000V.

CT