ghealty and I tried to fire up the rat today. First time in over two years that I have had the car and over ten years total.

Here is the scoop:

All new engine and front light wiring harnesses. All new coil, all new voltage regulator, all new battery. The distributor came from a friend who told me that it is brand new as well (it looks brand new). I installed a pertronix kit in it.

Gene and I think it is an electrical problem. We get fuel squirting out the jets but do not seem to be getting any spark.

We have a timeing light hooked up but it does not flash while cranking. One strange thing to happen is when we turn the ignition swith from run to off the timing light flashes on as we go through that motion.

We thought maybe we had a bad ignition switch so we replaced it but the same thing is happening.

The only thing I can figure is that the pertronix or the distributor iteself is bad.

Anyone have any thoughts?

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My '68 SS396 (http://albums.photopoint.com/j/PopUpIndex?u=1391133&a=10384235&pw=&size=small)

North Texas Camaro Club (http://www.northtxcamaros.com)

Is the glass half empty or half full???.....Neither, the glass is twice as large as it needs to be!

Kel,

I know you guys have checked the obvious so if the coil is making spark then disconnect the petronix and run points so you can get the cam run in properly. This isn't the first time I've heard of a petronix unit failing right out of the box...

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...Dennis
'69 RS Convertible w/SS trim (http://www.camaroslimited.com/memberscars/den.htm)
'96 Z28SS #1679 of 2410 (http://www.camaroslimited.com/graphics/memcars/96ss.jpg)
"The Club" (http://camaroslimited.com)

We may just do that DJ.

I am no expert on points so I was trying to avoid that.

One other thing I forgot to mention was the hor relay. The buzzer does not seem to work. When we changed ignition switches, it worked one time and then back to not working. Would the horn relay have any affect on the engine starting (not starting)?

Thanks,
Kel

Get a test light and while someone is cranking see if the petronics is switching the coil negative terminal. If the test light flashes than the coil is good. If the light glows consant than i would check the ground for the petron. If the ground looks good than get a new one or use the points. Also does the petron. need 12 volts or 6 volts ie the risistor wire, plus did you hook up the ign. wire that goes to starter soliniod.

Does the pertronics require you to bypass the resistance wire in the wiring harness?
David

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Hey, thanks for the help guys.

the Pertronix is designed to be used in a 12 volt negative ground system.

It has a note that says "If your ignition system presently has a ballast resistor, do not remove it."

Hmmm..

Maybe this is my problem?...The instructions say...

"For installations that use a primary ballast resistor, connect the Ignitor red wire to the ignition switch side of the resistor (that is to say, on the non coil side of the resistor). I had the red wire going to the (+) side of the coil (which is correct for non ballast resistor systems). Looks like I did this wrong.

Any idea how I can tie into the ignition side of the resistor? If I can find a way to do this, I'll try it and see if that solves the problem.

Kel

Kel,

I believe first gens use a "resistor wire" (I believe it has a cloth insolator) not the actual ballast resistor. If you had the resistor you could follow the coil wire back to it and strap a wire from one side of it to the other. Other wise you need to replace the resistance wire.

Not sure that this is the problem with starting though. There should be a wire from the starter that provides the full 12 volts when cranking. Unless you removed it. I would think if the res wire were the problem the car would crank, start and then die when you released the starter...

[This message has been edited by DjD (edited 09-03-2001).]

Ok,

I re-wired the red wire from the pertronix to the fuse block at a spade terminal labeled ign.

The engine will continue to crank over but never fires.

There is one interesting thing going on here though. When I turned the keyswitch from run to just pass off towards the acc position (but not quite there) I get the buzzer to start going off again. The buzzer does not work with the key in the off, run or acc position.

Upon descovering this, I cranked the engine over and quickly moved the key to this "buzzer" position (between off and acc)and the engine tried to fire (sounder like one cylinder went off before quitting).

I looked under the dash and have three wires not connected to anything. Two are orange. One of those looks like it goes to the cig lighter while the other looks like it has something to do with the heater/fan circuit. They both have plugs on the end which leads me to believe they have nothing to do with the ignition switch. The third wire is yellow and had been butt spliced into another wire (since removed). It has been cut at the butt splice. Just guessing here, but I think that one may have went to a radio (no longer present). The plug that goes into the back of the ignition switch has all wires accounted for and present.

The new wiring harness had a yellow wire that runs from the (+) side of the coil down to the starter. This wire is connected properly. I have checked for spark at the primary wire (the one to the top of the distributor cap) while cranking and I am getting a good bright spark while holding the end about 1/4" from the block. The coil appears to be sending the right spark to the distributor. The problem seems to be in the distributor getting the spark out to the spark plugs.

I may be having two problems here. One with the distributor and one with the buzzer.

Keep the help coming guys!

Any thoughts?

Kel

[This message has been edited by kel (edited 09-03-2001).]

That sucks, don't you just hate electrical gremlins? You don't have any braided fuel lines touching on the back of your alternator do you? That one took me a week to figure it out. I'm sure you'll get it eventually, and hey, I know that DZ carb is good...... http://www.camaros.net/forum/smile.gif

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John D. Smith
69 SS/396 CLONE!
The Texas Tornado lives!
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May have two problems. The buzzer or the key minder circuit has little to do with the engine firing.
If the starter cranks, take a piece of wire from the batery + terminal to coil +. See if the engine cranks and starts. You won't be able to shut it down unless you remove this wire.
If this works, there is a problem with the RUN wiring from the ignition switch.

OK Guys,

Got the thing to finally run!

As they say, always check the obvious.

I finall broke down and bought a new distributor from the autoparts store (only cost $35).

Upon pulling the old one out, I noticed that the distributor gear was put on backward. That is to say, the gear was at the very bottom of the shaft rather than up about 2" off the bottom. As I said earlier, my friend gave me the distributor and I in fact installed a pertronix kit in it. The pertronix kit causes you to shim the distributor if necessary and I did so. I should have caught the gear being wrong at that time but it slipped right past me.

Since the gear was on the end it would engage the cam gear and then slide completly by it while being dropped in. Once by it, it would not be turned by the cam gear. Since it wasn't turning, there was no spark to anything. The thing that threw me was being able to turn the rotor clockwise and feel the advance weight springs kick in, but I was also able to turn it counter-clockwise about 1/8". It should not have moved any. I guess the distributor gear would contact the cam gear and keep it from rotating any more than 1/8". If it had been just a hair lower it would of free wheeled both directions and I would have know something was up.

Well, since I had bought the new distributor anyway, I went ahead and installed it. The rat started right up after about two tries. Now that I have run it for about 15 minutes, I am going to go back and see if I can get the pertronix to work and then I will do all my tuning.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and help.

Kel

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My '68 SS396 (http://albums.photopoint.com/j/PopUpIndex?u=1391133&a=10384235&pw=&size=small)

North Texas Camaro Club (http://www.northtxcamaros.com)

Is the glass half empty or half full???.....Neither, the glass is twice as large as it needs to be!

Put the distributor with the pertornix installed back in the car and it started right up.

Oh well, learned another lesson (or the same lesson again!).

Have the car tuned now and it is running great. Putting new tires on tomorrow, alignment on Saturday, and on the road Saturday night!

Thanks again,
Kel

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My '68 SS396 (http://albums.photopoint.com/j/PopUpIndex?u=1391133&a=10384235&pw=&size=small)

North Texas Camaro Club (http://www.northtxcamaros.com)

Is the glass half empty or half full???.....Neither, the glass is twice as large as it needs to be!