For the past 2 weekends I have been trying to start my Chevelle, but it will not start. It won't even spark. I did have a Mallory Hyfire VIal hooked up and I thought that was the problem. Unhooked that and still no spark. Thouhgt it might be the Coil. Running a Mallory HEI with Mech advance and the high output coil. Had the coil tested and it was fine. Then has the ignition control module tested and that was bad, thought that it was it and could get it started. but still nothing. Had the new module checked and it was good. I am down to have the Pickup and the condenser being the problems I am pretty sure the pickup is good but not sure about the condenser. Can any body think of anything else that might be wrong that i am missing? This is driving me nuts. Thanks for any help in advance. graemlins/clonk.gif

sounds like it could be the same as this one (http://www.chevelles.com/cgi-bin/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=002775#000008)

Matt --- pick-up coil. Don't waste any more precious road time.

Thanks for the help I won't actually get the chance to try it out until the weekend. I will let you know what I get. Thanks again.

I finally have spark. I tested the pick up it was good. Coil has 12 volts going to it. Still nothing. We could hold the Spark plug in our hands and turn it over and it would feel like someone was flicking your finger. They only thing that we could think of is the coil. had it tested and they said it was good. we decided to just get a new coil. Put the new coil in and it spaked. put the plug in and it the starter button and it turned over. Something simple and right in front of us, a bad coil. Thanks for the help guys.

Don't mean to hop in and steal some space, but where exactly is the pick up coil? I've ran into the same problem this weekend, brought the car home and now it won't start. Thanks for the help.

Sarg,

The pickup coil they are talking about is in the distributor on a capacitive discharge ignition type distributor. If you have a points distributor, you don't have a pickup coil. If you have your coil in the cap of your distributor, then there is a star type gizmo under the mechanical advance that triggers a pulse for the ignition module to send a shot of electrons to the primary side of the coil. The secondary side dumps into your rotor from that graphite looking button in the distributor cap. The module that controls all this is underthe mechanical advance and bolted to the distributor plate and has some dielectric grease/heat transfer paste under it.

It is pretty rare that the pickup coil goes bad.
If you don't have any spark, check the coil first, then the module. If you have to replace the module, you could do it with an MSD version.
There is some debate as to wether this has any advantage over GMs modules, so it is up to you.

3 things required for engine to run.

1. fuel
2. compression
3. spark

Check them all and you will be hot on the trail of why it doesn't start.

hope this helps
and,
Thanks for serving.

Dave