Hi everyone. I bought an early dodge dart with a slant 6 and I was told it had a blown head gasket. After looking the car over, I saw there was no oil in the water and no water in the oil. So I throw some starting fluid down the carb and a good battery and it fires over. Didn't run for more than 2 seconds and it was very rough. After trying several more times with gas and starting fluid, I can't get it to fire anymore. I checked out the points and one side of the points looks like its just about gone. I figure I would start there but I check to see if there is any spark coming out of the coil when I turn the car over and nothing. I replace the coil with a known good coil and that coil has nothing coming out of it. I replace coil wire and still nothing happens. Firing order is correct as well. I checked the ballast resistor back side. It's not broken but I cant see into the inside of it. Any thoughts. I kinda think the points are shot but I figured I would try and get some ideas from you guys before I do shot gun mechanic method and throw parts at it. Cap looks brand new inside and rotor looks good. Technically there could be a problem there too. Looks can be decieving.

take the thin black wire from the dist to the coil negative primary terminal off & with a jumper wire w 2 alligator clips jump this terminal to ground making and breaking contact like morse code and see if the coil center (secondary) terminal now has fire (have the key on) by taking the large coil to dist wire out of the dist & holding that end 1/4" from ground. If you get spark(s) the coil is good though it can act up when hot I dont that is the issue here. You making/breaking contact to ground is duplicating what the points do and grab another set since they are shot. EDIT backing up a bit 1st hand turn eng until the points are closed & w key "on" opening/closing the points w a small screwdriver. Close to the rubbing block on the side closest to the end is a good place for your screwdriver to touch the arm to lift the arm up a fraction of an inch to make it spark

The wire coming from the distributor is on the positive side of coil. Is this right?

My points spark when I turn the engine over with dist. cap off. They are gapped about .013. Should be a larger gap. I'm going to go do what you said Robert.

The #5 exhaust valves on the /6 were prone to burning out. Pull the head (easy job) and have a look-see.

The small black wire from the dist goes to the coil negative (-) primary terminal and the other side (+) on the coil goes to the downstream side of the ballast resistor. EDIT if your coil has an externally mounted capacitor on the side (looks pretty much like the condensor thats on the inside of the cap next to the points) (& most of that era did) that capacitor goes to the positive (+) primary terminal on the coil. that addt'l info might help you see if the polarity had been switched. Gap is .020" and actually a .013" gap makes for easier starting (& more power) from the increased dwell time but at the expense of point life. Snap the points open/closed w a screwdriver & see if you can get the coil secondary to fire.

alright switched around wires on the coil and cleaned spark plugs and it fired up. Didn't sound great so I replaced spark plugs and changed oil and purrs like a kitten. Oil was thin and gas deluted. Thanks guys...another Mopar back on the road!

Great news, it's hard to keep a slant 6 down. I was going to ask if the distributor was turning. they have a plastic gear on the bottom and sometimes they go south.

Glad to hear you got it running. I say dump the points and buy a Pertronix. You'll be much happier.