[Roadtrip]

Does your car have a ballast resistor on top of the coil? If so:

1. Gr/Bk wire goes to the ballast resistor (from start key switch)
2. Green wire goes to the + coil (from fuseblock)
3. Black wire goes to - coil (from the distributor)
4. Short Red wire connects ballast resistor to + coil

TEST:

A. Test your coil as follows:

1. Between + and - terminals .75 to .81 ohms
2. Between + or - terminals and center (coil to distr) 10,000-11,000 ohms.

B. Test the green wire disconnected from the coil and ignition key switch on. Should read 10-12 volts. If not, remove the fuel supply pump fuse to disable the supply pump (high current load). Does the voltage improve significantly?

C. If your supply pump is getting old and drawing a high current, it may be robbing current from the rest of the car. If it is drawing abnormally high current, it's probably a short time until it fails altogether.

D. Check the female spade termainals in good shape. Old ones can loosen up and the side crimps break altogether. Check the black wire from the - coil terminal to the distributor. It connects with a spade terminal to the underside of the distributor base. I'll bet you'll find that connection very corroded, dirty, and probably loose.


PAPAJAM: Did pre-74s have ballast resistors? I note in the wire diagrams that it isn't there.