MadaboutKitcars

Last week I bought another car which had a new engine recently fitted. The last owner had put it in place and wired it up but told me that it would need the timing setting up however it seems that I am getting no spark.

The ignition coil seems to be fine, when I wire just the + side I am getting 12V reading on both + and - terminals which then drops to 4-5v on + and 1v on - when I complete the circuit. Can somebody confirm that this is correct? If so I know to move on and start looking at the distributor.

that is right if pionts are open u will get on plus and minus it be con /or pionts cap rotor arm or diss u/s

Check the rotor arm, I've had two cheap ones disintegrate on me at idle. It's worth paying for a decent quality one.

Thanks, just looking to rule some things out at the moment so I now know everything upto the coil is working as it should. With the exception of taking the distributor cap off and checking that the rotor arm is spinning, what should I be looking for?

An immobiliser?

I fitted a new set of points to my morris last year (the old ones had done 16yrs!)....anyway, was totaly stumped when I had no spark. Cut a long story short, the points had a protective glaze over the contacts. A light rub with some fine paper and she was off!
Maybe?

I will check that seanick, thanks. The distributor looks quite new so its a possibility.

I had a similar problem with my scimitar donor. It had been running fine for months then it sat for 4 weeks while i was away. On my return it would not start at all. I tried swapping coil, ht leads, rotor arm no difference so I checked the points with a multimeter. seems the points were not earthing when closed. A ran some sandpaper betwen the contact points and hey presto started first time.
So check the basic first.
HM