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I haven't worked on Diane in a few days because I feel like I've been at a loss for what to do with the coil and engine not starting. Thankfully Rob came over on Sunday and was able to help me trouble shoot my problems. First off he explained that I should run a wire straight from the battery to the coil and bypass attaching it to the starter like it had originally been. He was saying that the starter was pulling a lot of the amperage from the battery and not letting it go to the coil. Then after looking inside the distributor cap he saw that I had incorrectly gaped my points....making it so they wouldn't close the circuit when I was trying to start the engine. I disconnected the wire I had running from the starter to the coil and replaced it with a wire from the coil to a positive connection to the battery. I set it up so the end that connects to the battery is easily detachable. I did this by crimping a loop butt to the end, then sliding that onto a screw with a nut and lock washer. I tightened the nut and was able to slide it into the positive battery port. This way when I pull it out the coil won't be draining the battery and then when it's in the coil will have power. Next we tackled the gap of the points. When I had originally gaped them I hadn't accounted for the peaks and flat spots so when I had gaped them at .022", it was at one of the flat spots which should be a closed circuit and then when the peak was reached the gap was much further. Rob and I fixed it after a few minutes and then tried the to start her. She wanted to but the timing was off. Rob suggested that I work on adjusting the distributor to fine tune the timing. Since I like to be able to see some progress as I go, I have been working on removing some body parts that will eventually need to be removed anyways. I started by removing the driver side door handle as well as the window, and latch plate. After a lot of work, having to drill out several screws, and lots of WD-40 everything came out. I had to break the plate the glass would normally sit in so I could remove the window frame. Then I removed the chrome trim from around the outside of the window. I have also removed the trim around the headlights and the headlights from their locations in the fenders. Needless to say Diane is starting to look rather plain!
Once again I am stumped... I adjusted the points and have tried to get a spark but still don't have any. My only other thought is that the coil is bad. I did have it tested at Autozone, but I'm not sure the results they came up with were right. They tested it, then looked at a book to see if it was within range, but I'm not convinced, first because I think their results were for the original 6 volt coil, and I have a newer 12 volt coil. Since the coil is the only thing I haven't yet replaced that is needed to start the engine, I'm going to replace it. My hope is that once I have it replaced the engine will start right up. On a side note, since we still don't have Diane titled in our names because of difficulties with the Oregon DMV, we have been on the lookout for the next of kin to the original owner. This past weekend we found him. Lydon, Paul's son lives down near Milwaukie and has agreed to help us out with some of the paperwork we need. He told Margaret a lot of information about the truck, including the fact the engine really wasn't doing all that well when they last used her. He said that he knew they should have done some work to the engine to help preserve it a bit before parking her for good.
the engine. Margaret and I have been trying it, and last night when we tried to turn over Diane and she backfired. Not necessarily from the exhaust but there was a big bang and a plume that came back from the carburetor. Needless to say it made me jump back a little bit since my hand was over the carb. When I jumped poor Margaret jumped too from inside the truck. Once we both had realized what happened, we tried to use gas instead of the starter fluid I had been using. We poured some gas into the funnel/hose that I had set up, which is hooked up to the fuel intake into the carb. We tried it again and nothing. I tried adjusting it again thinking that maybe it had moved with the backfire...but of course I was unsuccessful. I talked to Rob about the carb backfiring and he thinks there might not be any compression in the engine. He said it that was the case then I would most likely either need to get a new engine or have this one rebuilt. 
Once again being frustrated I have moved on to other things while I try to calm down from realizing I may need to have the engine rebuilt. I was finally able to remove the driver side window and frame, as well as the door handle, latch plate, and trim around the window. Even with the trim removed I think my two girls are ready for a drive! 
