706 no spark at points

I just put new points, condenser, and spark plugs in to my gas
706. They are fitted, gapped, adjusted to how they have always
been done. The battery is in good shape as are the spark plug
wires, distributor cap and rotor. I am not getting spark at the
points. The condenser is not touching the casing. Lights are
working. My dad and I are scratching our heads. We know it is
probably something simple, but are stumped. I know a new day
will bring better results and sometimes you just have to walk away
from it, but what are we missing? Thank you!!

Put the old condenser back in. Now days it is very common to get a bad condenser. If that does not work try a screw driver at the points to see if you get spark with the screw driver. If you do the points are the type that have a coating on them so as to protect them and you need to clean them

I had someone share this chart with me a few years back. It has to be something simple. I have seen new points be bad out of the box before and ground themselves out.

Also doesn't 706 have that funky resistor bypass circuit that relies on the Gen bulb for starting with hot spark then running on 6 volt spark?

Make sure your have battery voltage at the coil. Use a volt meter or test lite and with the points open you should have voltage on both terminals. If you don't have voltage here with the ignition switch on check your switch for voltage. If there's voltage on both small terminals use a piece of 320 wet or dry and rub the new points. Hal

If you perform my Troubleshooting Procedure step by step it can often diagnose the cause of non firing. Shes never gonna fire until theres voltage on the coils input when IGN is on and if you put a test lamp on the coils output (to distributor) or distributors side terminla it must flash ON when points are open and OFF when closed as engine is turned over slowly IGn ON.

Common problems are points burned or not set right or not fully closing or perhaps a new out of box shorted condensor.

Try my Procedure step by step.

Let me know, any questions???

John T
John Ts Ignition Troubleshooting

Well , welcome to the new world order of junk parts . Over the years i have encountered about fifteen sets of points that PLUM DO NOT WORK. Don't care how you hold your mouth your tongue , stand on your head or how you try and clean them . I have pulled them out of there brand new box and found them corroded . Sometimes you can clean them with a fine emery cloth and they will work sometimes not. First time this happened to me was about twentyfive years ago on a International cub lowboy. Every spring i would make a service call to this widowed woman's place and tune her Cubby up for the mowing season . She only wanted OEM parts and i stopped by the I H dealer and got everything this time around . I got the battery out from her basement as that is where she wanted it stored over winter and put in the cub and fired it up to bring it out into the light and let it warm up and do the total service on it . IF fired up and ran perfect ( had it beem me i would not do this till it needed it ) But she wanted it totally serviced each spring. While the oil was draining i changed the plugs and points cap rotor and wires , cleaned out the sed.bowl and everything else . After i did the oil change i went to start it and no go . So off came the cap and like you no fire across the points . They would fire with a screw driver but not across the contacts. Pulled them out and looked them over and could not see why they would not , but i cleaned everything up and put them back in and same thing no fire , ran the points file across them and still nothing. Put the old points in and it fired up . Put the new points in and no fire . I went up the road a couple miles to the old Oliver dealer and got a set of Tisco points and put them in and it fired up . I took the Case I H points back to the dealer and got new set . They were fine . A couple weeks later by buddy who was the parts man at the Case I H dealer came to the shop one evening with a brand new set of Case I H points to put in his 450 and guess what they did not work either and he thought i was kidding him when i took the one set back. I asked him if he put them points back on the shelf that i brought back and if those were the same set , he no you saw me throw that set away and these just came in on this weeks stock order. SO you could varywell have a bad set of points.

Thank you to all of you for all of things to go back and double check. I will start with changing the condenser and filing the points. I wouldn't be surprised if the points and/or the condenser are junk! I will keep you posted on what I figure out! Thank you again!!