Hey all, I posted my problem earlier today, of my car not being able to fire and not having any spark. I have checked everything and even installed a new pertronix module and coil, after I installed it I fired it up and as I was turning the distributor it only stayed on for a brief moment and died again. After that the motor would just crank and there would be no spark. It's as if something keeps blowing out therefore not creating any spark. I'm afraid my new module is useless now, and something keeps causing them to go out. What could be the problem, I'm going crazy over this and I know I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight. A couple of days ago when I was messing around with it, I accidently left the red battery wire on the manifold and it grounded out causing some smoke to come from the wires on the firewall under the booster, but it only lasted for like 3 seconds, could that have gotten burned out and be the cause of my distributor not getting any spark and the problems I'm having. As stated before the motor cranks over fine and even fired up right after I installed the new module and coil, but died again and now there's no spark. I always appreciate the help and advice I receive from people on this board, and I hope you guys can guide me in the right direction. It's a brand new GM HEI and I'd hate to have to spend like $250 on a mallory unit not being sure if that would work.
Please help a frustrated 20 year old out!!!
Thanks,
-Cyrus

When did the problem start, as soon as you fixed it up with the HEI, or was it after the smoke thing? The smoke is definitely an indicator that their is a problem with the wiring. Check the power wire to the coil and see if its got power.

Another thing, did this car have points before? When you changed the points out for the hei did you remove the resistor wire? Points do not run on 12 volts. They only use 12 volts on startup but then bypass the wiring to run through a resistor wire or ballast resistor to drop the voltage to around 9 volts so you dont fry the points. The HEI needs 12 volts to operate properly so you need to get rid of the resistor wire. If, you did run a new 12 volt wire, did you hook it up to a source that has 12 volts during crank and run? If you hooked it up to a source that only has 12 volts during cranking, that would explain why it fires and then dies immediately...cause as soon as you let off the key, you have no more power going to the coil.

Anyways I still think its a wiring prob for stuff to be smoking and what not. Double check all the connections and wires. For a quick test, get a toggle switch, hook a wire straight to the battery and into the toggle switch and then run that to the positive side of the coil. Turn the switch on, crank the engine and if it fires and continues to stay running with the hacked in wire, you know that the dizzy itself is fine but the problem is in your wiring.

Thanks for the input, I'll try the test with the toggle switch. As for the car itself, it always had an HEI, even when I bought it with a 327. I installed a 406 and had it running just a couple of days ago, but decided to redo the timing because I didn't like the way the vacuum advance was hitting up against the transmission dipstick. Ever since I took the distributor out to redo, the timing I haven't been able to get it running. So, I know it should run, I just dont know why there isn't any spark anymore.
-Cyrus