Ignition issues

That's the classic symptom of an open ballast resistor. It gets bypassed by the ignition switch when it's in the "crank" position. That's why the engine runs as long as you hold the key there. If you hold it with one hand and shift to "drive" with the other hand, the neutral safety switch will cut out the starter and the engine will stay running.

You can verify this by turning the ignition switch to the "run" position, then measuring the voltage on the positive terminal of the ignition coil. The voltage will vary depending on whether the breaker points are open or closed. With them closed, you'll find close to 0 volts. With them open, you should find 12 volts. This should be tested with a test light. If you use a digital voltmeter, carbon tracking through the break in the resistor can allow enough current through for the voltmeter to pick that up and falsely show 12 volts.

You can rotate the engine by hand to make the points switch between open and closed.

We bypassed the resistor and it still does the same thing it just bogs and shuts off it never really engages. Any other ideas?

Figured it out, broken wire. Thanks for the tip about the resistor, it was a wire on that.

'Nuther guy

Should you ever have the ballast resistor fry/ go out. Just to get you back in, you can jump across it's terminals with a wire/ paper clip/ piece of barbed wire/ etc. Replace it soon as you can!

The Medic

Thanks for the tip CJ, that's how we figured out that it was a broken wire from the resistor to the ignition. We jumped across terminals and it still didn't work so we traced wires and what do you know.... broken. Thanks to everyone offering solutions they were very helpful.

Thanks for using 2Carpros, we are here to help.

Best, Ken