[crakarjax]

Heres my predicament... I'm not at home right now, but when i was i couldnt get my car started. I inserted a spark plug into a wire and had my dear old mom crank it. I tried lots of stuff, but didnt get any spark but once, and only once. Here is what I checked:
-There is power to the distributor
-the coil has .8 ohms of resistance from neg. to bat. terminals
-new dist., cept for coil...
-i recently hooked it up to full instead of ported vacuum
-new wires (msd, but ive had it running since i put the wires and dist. in)
-some black carbon crap on the metal points in the cap, where the rotor might contact it. i cleaned these off though. not carbon tracks.
well, this is all the info i know about it so you guys know as much as me now. i still have the module from my old dist., should i try that first? I'm not really in a hurry, i am going home this weekend and i just want to be prepared to fix this. How do i test the module? is there anything else that needs to be tested? well, if you have any tips, lemme have em! thanks guys1
Russ


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Russ B.

'68 Chevelle 2dr Ht,
'69 8.2" Powertrax rear
'72 402ci Rat
'74 454 heads
All drums; they're not so bad...
...nice first car, huh?
well, it will be as soon as I spruce it up!

 

[John_Muha]

Russ
Modules?? Changed it to a GM factory style HEI? No spark on a GM HEI usually turns out to be the module. The Haynes Chevelle book has a detailed HEI checkout procedure towards the back. BTW, most aftermarket modules are junk. Stick with GM replacements.

 

[crakarjax]

Well, the module in there is the one that came with the (autozone) distributor. I will try putting the old one in and see how it goes first off. It has that big honkin gm logo on it.. gotta love it.

------------------
Russ B.

'68 Chevelle 2dr Ht,
'69 8.2" Powertrax rear
'72 402ci Rat
'74 454 heads
All drums; they're not so bad...
...nice first car, huh?
well, it will be as soon as I spruce it up!

 

[crakarjax]

Dang... Okay, i put the other module in and no go. Tested the other module and coil and they are both ok. What else could it be? I know my wires are ok. Spark plugs are ok. Just to make sure, i ran a new wire to the hei, which terminal should it be connected to in the fuse block? I hate it when my car doesnt start...

 

[John_Muha]

The added HEI wire goes to a switched IGN terminal on the fuseblock. One that has 12 volts when the key is on. You can also run it straight to the battery (fused) as a test. Gives it a sure 12 volts but won't turn off unless you remove the cable.

The distributor is new. Not sure I would suspect the pick-up coil but just tossing that out.

The hi-voltage coil is seated firmly against the carbon piece in the center of the cap.

Hi-volt coil ground strap was installed

Engine block has a good ground.
Runnng out of things to check on this side of the screen.

 

[Schurkey]

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