Having ignition troubles with my 35 Standard. I was driving it the other day and the engine developed a vibration - bad enough for me to think I dropped a cylinder. When I got it home I performed a compression test. All clyinders were within 115 to 120 psi. Not sure if that's good for the 207, but it made me turn my attention to the ignition system. Checked the gap on all the plugs and also checked the points - both were good. Also note, I replaced the cap, rotor, capacitor, wires, and points about 4 months ago. When I went to check the timing, the timing light wouldn't "strobe" when I connected the pick-up to the #1 spark plug wire. Thought maybe my timing light was bad, so I tried using it on another car and but it worked great. So I went back to the '35 and tried connecting the timing light pick-up to the #2 spark plug wire, and still no "strobe". After trying each wire, I found only spark plug wires #5 and #6 had the typical "strobe" and spark plug wire #4 had an intermittent "strobe". After that, I used a screwdriver and shorted each wire end to the block one at a time. Shorting wires 1,2, and 3 had no effect on the engine, but shorting 5, 6, and 4 made the engine almost stall. So here's my question, would a bad coil cause these symptoms? I checked the primary voltage at the ballast resistor and I read 9V (car has been converted to 12V). Is the 9V at the primary too much for the 6V coil? I have no problem putting a new coil in it, but I would think a bad coil would effect all the cylinders and not just a select few. Any advise/help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks - Rob

The best advice would be to change back to 6-volts. It just works better there.

If you have changed to 12-volt, why are you using a 6-volt coil???? You should be using a 12-volt coil with built in resistor. I assume the plug wires are solid wire and not resistive wire.

Your compression readings are well within limits and should not have any effect on your problems.

To use a 12-volt strobe light requires a 12-volt source. Not sure where you are obtaining your power source for the timing light.

Rob
Sounds like you might have a problem with plug leads. With a ohms meter check for continuity (should be less than 3000 ohms resistance).
If you are still using the 6volt coil at 9volts you will most likely burn the coil out, put a coil capable of 9volts in its place.
Tony

I would check the spark plug wires first. If they check out ok then the cap and rotor. Those are the parts that are involved in directing the electricity to the individual spark plugs. The coil will either work with all cylinders or none. It may be possible for the coil to be intermittent but if that is the case then the failure at the plug wires will be random not specific wires.

Another possibility is the ground of the spark plugs or the plugs themselves. Though not likely the problem it is worth checking them too.