Okay, so I drove the 65 to the gym last night. As soon as I put the car in park it shuts off. I try to restart it and nothing. It was dark but I tried to look around. To my pleasure I just thought I ran out of gas. Banged on the tank and it sounded like nothing was in it and there was no fuel in the fuel line up by the carb. I didn't have my wallet so I had to run home in the dark. I got fuel, dumped some in the carb and some in the tank. Still won't start. There is fuel in the line though. Fuel pump is working. I thought maybe I drained the battery. Tried to jump it. Nothing. I had an extra spark plug in the glove box so I disconnected wire 1 and tried to jump a spark from the plug in the wire to the plug in the block. No spark. Did I do that right? My guess is that it is in the distributor. However, back in Janurary I had a new pick-up coil, module and distributor cap put on. HEI system. What do you think it is? If my timing chain went the car won't turn over right? I am getting ready to sell it and I hope it isn't anything major. I already am going to take a big lose on it.

As soon as I put the car in park it shuts off.
Check the Neutral safety switch

A neutral safety switch can keep it from starting but shouldn't cause it to shut off once it's running. Sounds like the engine is turning over, NSS would stop it from even cranking.

Not sure your method of testing for spark will work. Try it again but hold the tip of the plug against some bare metal on the engine to provide a ground. Then you should see a spark across the gap if the ignition is working.

Check the wires from the distributor to the cap and the power lead coming into the cap. Where does the power lead come from? Probably fuse block, make sure it's plugged in and getting power.

If you are sure you have power to the HEI but you have no spark replace the HEI module.I had one go on me once.Shut my truck off with absolutly no problems...Then it wouldn't start after that.
If it was the neutral safety switch then it wouldn't even turn over.
If it was timing chain it would still turn over but you would definately notice a sound differance from no compression.To be sure pull off the dist. cap and turn it over see if it spins.
Hope this helps.Its no fun driving the car behind a tow vehicle :)

I just had the same problem a few days ago. Did you replace the rotor when you changed the distributor cap and module? Replace your rotor, as most likely a small hole has developed and is causing it to ground to the bottom of the distributor. Cheap parts can also cause this to happen if you did replace it.

Easy was to tell if the rotor is burnt is to take it off and flip is over and see if it looks burnt or brown around the edges.

This problem stumped me as well until I finally pulled the distributor cap and removed the rotor for inspection.

Good luck!

Thanks. I did check the lead from the fuse box etc. All good. When the engine cranks it sounds fine. Must be the rotor. I had to have it towed some where and they are looking at it. I never ripped open a distributor so I was a little aprehensive. Hopefully they don't try to rip me off. I know enough to know whether or not they are pulling a fast one. I don't think the rotor was changed. Will let you know. I have to call them in an hour.

I'm with Hank, did you have the plug grounded good when you checked for spark?

First thing I would do is just stick a screwdriver in the plug wire and hold it close to a good ground to make sure there is no spark.

If not, make sure you have 12 volts at the "BAT" terminal on the cap WHILE CRANKING.

UPDATE: Garage called. It was a fuse? They said the wire coming from the fuse box to the distributor shook lose and blew a fuse. **** me off. I checked that wire last night but it was dark so I couldn't check the fuses. I remember using my phone to light up the fuse box but none of the descriptions on the fuse box looked like it would cause the car not to start. I don't remember seeing and ignition fuse. $60 fix. Oh well, could be worse. I will miss this car though. They are easy to diagnose. Once I get a garage I am buying another one.

those cars didnt come with a hei type distributor. So when most guys installed them they just ran a wire to the fuse box and tucked the wire behind a fuse. Bad thing was it would wiggle loose. Causing your exact problem. My guess is the shop found the no power to the Batt side of the hei unit (saw know spark at wire and and nothing out of the coil after taking the cap off) traced the wire and just put it back in place. It will happen again I`m sure. It needs to be hard wired (fused of course) to an ignition hot in run feed. The best way Ive found to check for spark is to use a long lead test light. Put the ground clip in a wire you want to test stretch it back to the drivers door and use the door switch (or any other good ground) hold it a 16th of an inch away from it to see if it arcs against it when cranking. A good one man operation. It should jump thru the test light and across a 1/4 of an inch if its got good hot spark (probably 10kv) taking into consideration a fully charged battery. Good luck and get that Hei Batt feed hard wired.