49 Plymouth, questions

Hi I'm new to the site and I just got a 49 Plymouth. I'm just getting into classic cars and I'm 28.

It was running when I bought it (two weeks ago) and I had a friend change out a number of things (spark plugs, fuel pump, distributor cap, rotor, points, coil, choke, and cleaned the carb) Well before I went to get it the cap was off and it isn't running now.

My questions are.....

There's a 12v negative ground battery, isn't this wrong? I got it like this.

Its turning turning but will not start and I'm stuck. There's no spark in the new coil when I ran wires straight from the battery to it. There's no sparks in 2 spark plugs I checked. The set the points to .020. Is there something else I can do?

I want to convert the points to electric ignition, is there any kits for a 6v?

before he messed with it we ran a full tank of gas through it now I can't get it started.

You'll probably want to visit the forum at http://www.p15-d24.com/ as there is a wealth of knowledge on that era Plymouth there.

The car came from the factory with a 6v positive ground system. But it might have been converted to a 12v negative ground. Checking the light bulb voltages and seeing if there is a ballast resistor on the ignition will be clues. Running a 6v ignition system on 12v for any period of time will lead to early failure of the points and maybe the coil and condenser too.

Sounds like you are being methodical and have a primary fault identified (lack of spark). Do you have a volt-ohm meter or a test light? They are good tools to have when chasing down shorts and opens in the wiring.

There are 6v positive ground electric ignition kits available. My personal stance is that I can carry a spare set of points and a condenser (about the only thing that will fail on the road) in a small kit in the glove box but finding parts for a low production electronic ignition system on short notice on the road may be tough. So I run the old fashioned parts even though the modern parts are not as well manufactured as those of yore.