Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Blowing "starter" fuse when turning ignition on

I need a little help troubleshooting here. When I turn my igniton to on, it blows the starter fuse. I have a painless wire harness with a push button start. Very, very simple system. I traced a direct short to ground all the way to the distributor, which is 4 months old and worked great before. I disconnect the distributor from the coil and the ground goes away. Took the cap off and pulled the points apart so they were not making contact and short goes away. The coil reads about 4.5 ohms between the + and - terminals. Checked another one I had sitting in the garage and it reads the same. Need more info I'll give it. Any ideas I'll try them.

Update. Took points assy. out of distributor inspected and reassembled. No more fuse blowing. Now I have no spark at the plug.

Are the wires to the coil the correct polarity? + side to the ignition switch and the - to the distributer?
Dom

Check your wire where it enters the distributor for a break in the insulation that only touches when the cap is pushing down on the rubber insulator bushing. If your problem goes away when you remove the wire that connects your points to the coil the problem is not your coil. Also make sure that the wire is connected properly to the points I have seen them tightened in such a position as to be grounded at the points connection. You may also have a break in the conductor inside the insulation Check the wire with an ohm meter .

Who would have thought that a brand new distributor would have a condenser go bad. Shorted right to ground causing my problem.

Some mechanics have stated that 20% of the capacitors (condensers) they have installed were bad out of the box. I don't change mine as long as the points are wearing evenly, but do carry one in my tool bag.

Today 20% may be accurate. There made 'off shore'....

In the days before HEI, we just put one new on every 12V 'tune up' as; they were only 90 Cents etc.

On the 6 Volt systems (& some 12V) BE is correct; "If there's no 'pit' on one side, the condenser is good".

Happy trails.