Help- M-38 won't start

[AFCMSGT]

bought a m-38 about 1 month ago...still trying to figure this thing out in my RARE 'spare time'. with master switch 'ON' it will turn over, but not start. Batteries are kinda getting discharged, so further attempts will have to wait until I can take turns recharging the batteries (...I only have one charger). I don't have a multi-meter but this is what I checked: I reomved the fuel line from the pump to the carb and cranked the truck... fuel is reaching thr carb. I took out the No. 1 spark plug and held it against the head to ground it...had my wife crank it with the master 'ON' and no spark at the plug. checked all my battery cables & they're all tight. I'm guessing that it's either the Master Switch bad, or maybe the coil inside the distributor is bad. I'm leaning toward the coil, as the few times that I was able to start it (3-5 times) in the month that I've owned it, it was always 'hard' to start, with much cranking necessary. I doesn't seem like the ON/OFF master switch would be very prone to failure. When I removed the distributor/coil cover the dist. cap button looked fine, as did the points & rotor.??? Any thoughts?

[wesk]

The old main switches would fail with age and often the potting used to seal them can be seen erupted and almost completely dislocated from the switch.

You can remove the battery cables and leave the batteries in the jeep. Take a regular pair of jumper cables and connect the two negative posts with the black clips and the two positive posts with the red clips. No connect your 12 volt charger to one of the batteries (black clip to black clip and red clip to red clip). Now your batteries are temporarily connected parallel and you can charge them together at the same time.

With the switch on check for 24 volts at the wire connector at the distributor. Using the illustrations below check for the indicated items and perform the indicated tests. If you can't see the full image just right click on it and from the pop up menu select "Save image as: " to your computer or "View Image".








These are the two wires inside the distributor. Check each for bare spots or pinching against the distributor body or the small metal clamps. That capacitor is your radio noise filter and if it has failed it will ground out the 24 volts coming into the distributor.



Make sure all Douglas type metal harness connectors are not deteriorated to the points they loose contact or short to ground thru the metal caps.
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Wes K
45 MB, 51 M38, 54 M37, 66 M101A1, 60 CJ5, 76 DJ5D, 47Bantam T3-C & 5? M100

Mjeeps photo album: http://www.willysmjeeps.com/v2/modules.php?set_albumName=Wes-Knettle&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

[wesk]

You unscrew the plug show as +28 Volts and with the switch on check for battery power at the plug attached to the wire. If you need a new noise filter capacitor just buy one and remove the old one via those 4 small screws. The manual for this work is free for you to download on our Mjeeps web site.
_________________
Wes K
45 MB, 51 M38, 54 M37, 66 M101A1, 60 CJ5, 76 DJ5D, 47Bantam T3-C & 5? M100

Mjeeps photo album: http://www.willysmjeeps.com/v2/modules.php?set_albumName=Wes-Knettle&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

[AFCMSGT]

Wes, Happy 4th! I purchased a meter and performed the follwong tests you outlined:

test1: with master switch ON, I do have 24V at the radio interference capacitor on the side of the distribuor.
test 2: with master switch ON and the two coil wires removed as you instructed, I had '0' ohms across the primary terminals(...your coil test#1)
test 3: with the master switch ON I had 11,200 ohms when I tested the secondary terminals (botton terminal & center terminal of coil...I believe that you said 9,000-12,000 was a 'good' test, so that one passed. I DID notice that the shorter wire lead, that goes from the bottom coil terminal to the breaker-point assy terminal (... the same terminal that the condenser is hooked up to), has the plastic insulation 'stripped' off it for about a 1/4" length right before the terminal connector. Looks like it was pinched by the distributor cover??. Based on these results, what do you think???.. THANKS for the help & all your instructions!