Not one of my brighter days. My 14 T has been sitting for several months due to life getting n the way. I decided this morning to to take it for a drive, so I started in on all the prep work. Oiled the oil fittings. refilled and re-installed the grease cups. Where did I set that grease cup I just filled? Oh I don't remember setting it on the rear tire.
Finally I am ready to start the engine. Flip the ignition to battery, lift the crank. Yup there is the happy buzz of the coil. A few pulls later and the engine is spluttering away. Hummm engine does not sound right. I check the spark with a screwdriver and it just does not seem strong.
I pulled the timer off and cleaned and re-installed it. Damn I'm good, now the engine is running on 3 cyl not 4. Off with the timer again and this time I give it a GOOD cleaning. WOW I was able to start a 2 cy T engine!
Pull the timer again and start grounding out the contacts. Only 1 coil would buzz, the rest would only "click". Finally the light bulb in my head switched on. IF I had started the T on magneto it would have run FINE, the darned battery was dead! I greased the timer and put it back together. Started FIRST pull!!, something it does not normally do. I was getting one pull starts the rest of the day!
I have learned that just because a coil buzzes, it does not mean the battery is hot.
I had that issue once and all 4 coils were buzzing but the car would not start. After checking everything I could think of I decided to give up for a couple of hours so I hooked up the battery charger and noticed that it showed the battery to be very low. One hour on the charger and no more issues. I am not sure why a battery that is low but still makes the coils buzz will not start a T but there is no doubt in my mind that it can happen.
Maybe one of the electrical geniuses we have running around here can answer better than I can, so I'm not going to even attempt. I took two semesters of Electrical courses in college and went from knowing just enough to be dangerous to not knowing it all but wishing I did.
I had a similar problem with my battery when I first got her out of storage. The coils would buzz but the starter wouldn't spin. I put my homemade (OK, technically college-made) battery tender on for about a week, then gave it a shot. There were sparks under my feet when I hit the button the first time, but the starter spun her right over. Haven't had sparks since and she still starts with the button. I guess the battery didn't have enough charge to overcome the oxidation in the switch, but after a week on the charger she was ready to go. Never tried starting her on the mag, though. Might try it one of these days.
And I waited all day for Bill to stop by in his T. I finally gave up and converted the rest of my florescent lamps to T8 LED's. I charged the batteries on Ranger-1 and Ranger-3, replaced a flat on R-1 with one of many spares, and was surprised when both started. I moved them up the hill and out of sight leaving a driveway wide enough for Bill to turn around. Still no Bill so I did some gardening around the front door, hauled a load of trash to the dumpster, Still no Bill.
What all this means is that I get a lot done when Bill has a bad day!