Farmall 130 - HELP, NO SPARK AT COIL - janicholson or others

I have a '57 Farmall 130 that I can get any spark at the coil. I have hooked everything up as follows in the diagram, and it is key start so when I am turning over the engine it should be firing the way I have the coil wire hooked directly to the battery.

At the places where I drew a "lightning bolt" I have juice(checked with test light). The only place I can not get juice is at the end of the coil wire where it hooks to distributor. I've checked it against a good ground on the tractor.

I have replaced the coil with 3 different ones. Two of them off of previously running shed kept tractors (within the last 3 months). I have also tried another condensor and other coil wires. I filed the points with an emory board and they actually look fairly new.

I JUST CANT FIGURE OUT WHATS WRONG~

Well looks like I figured out what was wrong with the tractor getting spark at the coil wire. I looked at everything and tried everything....even a brand new 12 volt coil. Then I noticed what I had been questioning the whole time! Someone had used their own screw (with a slotted head) for the terminal stud on the side of the distributor with no grommets to keep from grounding out except a peice of brittle plastic on the outside. I went up to a parts 140 we have, and robbed the whole stud including the nuts, washers, and grommets; then installed it on the 130 distributor.....and SHAZAM!! The coil started firing!

I began to start it over using very little ether to get it to fire since its been a good while since its ran. It started to fire but not so well. I replaced the plugs at this point because they were shot. I had some I just took out of a Super A that are pretty good, but not new. The Super A ran fine with them. After that it still fires, but it just doesn't sound right. It almost started once with us, but not quite. Its either the carburetor, or the timing might be a little off. Either way, it'll have to wait because it got dark on me and I couldn't see 2 inches in front of my eyes! hahaha.

I'm so proud I figured out that mystery though! May it be a good tip to all of you who run across this problem. Connections mean everything!

Work through my Troubleshooting Procedure may help and identify the problem

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

John T
John Ts Ignition Troubleshooting

Thank you John, I will read through it. I believe another day of light will be all we need. When the sun runs out, its hard to keep working. At least we (I) found the main problem that left me scratching my head! haha.

squirting some oil in those dry cyl's will benefit you more than that crazy ether. gotta get that compression up. make sure the timing is on also. pull starting it is better than that ether also, at least the oil is being splashed on the cyl's and not being washed off with ether.

Check your plug wires on the cap to make sure they're in the correct firing order on the cap
like this: Hal

2-1
4-3 As the rotor rotates CW.

I would have suggested putting a test light on the movable point with the points open. Then if no volts, change the insulators on the pass through. but then I read on and the answer was already discovered. be sure to have the plugs from front to rear as El Toro shows. Jim