summary:

is it possible to somehow test an hei pole piece/pickup coil to make sure its working? if not, where can one be bought for cheap?

situation:

ignition died on me one day and car would not restart. returned the msd hei module and coil to msd for testing. in the meantime I bought a used distributor, used the module and coil on my hei, and STILL NO FIRE.

msd comes back and said my coil was good but the module was fried so they send me a new one.

I havent taken the new module out of the packaging first. I want to test my pole piece and pickup coil first to make sure its working because if its not Id rather just sell the msd 83645 and go with a whole different system

so you think you've got two different HEIs with bad pickup coils? Seems unlikely. If you have a decent Ohmmeter you can test the resistance across the leads of the pickup, if it changes when you wiggle the wires it's toast. If a pickup coil is run in a distributor with vacuum advance the wires can break inside the insulation right where they exit the coil. Looks OK but intermittent operation. The resistance should be 500-1500 Ohms, I've often seen around 700.

I didnt try the pickup coil in the used dist. it was three pin so I decded to not mess with it.

autozone has a mpc for $24.95. I'll just get that to remove any doubt.

Here is a pretty good step by step process. I learned through trial and error that it is worth it to buy a quality input module those cheapies will leave you standed.

http://www.chevelles.com/techref/ftecref5.html

Try it with your tach disconnected (if you have one). I went thru a similar dance a few weeks ago, 2 coils, 3 modules, and almost an entire distributor (I had them all onhand). Wouldn't start til I forgot to reconnect the tach. My pickup coils both measured right at 780 ohms BTW.

Here is a pretty good step by step process. I learned through trial and error that it is worth it to buy a quality input module those cheapies will leave you standed.

http://www.chevelles.com/techref/ftecref5.html

thanks for the link.

Try it with your tach disconnected (if you have one). I went thru a similar dance a few weeks ago, 2 coils, 3 modules, and almost an entire distributor (I had them all onhand). Wouldn't start til I forgot to reconnect the tach. My pickup coils both measured right at 780 ohms BTW.

are you serious? thats quite shocking to think a tach output would mess it up like that. Im glad you found the problem. I'll try it without the tach.

which tach are you using?

btw, I tested my old pickup coil at 785 ohms and the new one at 820. I threw the old one out though as it was quite grimy.