214 Deere coil wiring help needed

[rossow (mn)]

My early '80s 214 has two wires held by nuts on the negative post on the coil. One wire goes over the starter and disappears where I can't trace it. The other wire is a very short (2" or so) black one that looks either cleanly cut off or became detached from a connector. I don't know where or to what it connects. Even though on the negative coil post, it sparks when it touches metal, even when the key is off. (Engine turns over fine but won't start.) I'm obviously confused and hope someone can tell me what the short black wire hooks to. I really hope I can avoid disassembling more than the battery box to find the missing end attachment point. Any help, please, from 200-series experts?

 

[Blue Jay]

Capacitor would have been on the end of that wire.

 

[NormanSavesTractors]

As Blue Jay mentioned, the - side of the ignition coil should have 2 wires coming off of it. 1 wire goes to the points, and the other would go to a condenser. It's not uncommon to lose the condenser to time, and be left with a bare wire.

Now regarding why it would spark with key off, make sure that 12v power is cut from the + side of the coil, when they key is in the "OFF" position. If it doesn't you will want to address that issue as well.

 

[rossow (mn)]

My early '80s 214 has two wires held by nuts on the negative post on the coil. One wire goes over the starter and disappears where I can't trace it. The other wire is a very short (2" or so) black one that looks either cleanly cut off or became detached from a connector. I don't know where or to what it connects. Even though on the negative coil post, it sparks when it touches metal, even when the key is off. (Engine turns over fine but won't start.) I'm obviously confused and hope someone can tell me what the short black wire hooks to. I really hope I can avoid disassembling more than the battery box to find the missing end attachment point. Any help, please, from 200-series experts?

Thanks to your advice, all is well. I used a condenser/capacitor I had saved for decades when doing a Chevy V8 tuneup, and now the 214 starts and runs mostly OK. It still needs some tinkering, but it hadn't started since last summer and now fires right up. Now I need to take the throttle mechanism off from behind the dash and do some work on it, but that won't be a mystery, just a slight pain to remove, fix and reinstall. Again, thanks.