[vincevs]

Hey guys... we have our city's street machine weekend is starting tomorrow and I have been working on my car until 3am each night to get it ready and now it won't start!

Current Setup:
-Original 350 (now rebuilt) with original componants
-Pertronix III Ignition setup with Pertonix Coil and AAW HEI harness (I also tried with my original setup)



Problem:
-It cranks and I have fuel but I'm not getting a spark from the coil

What I have tried:
-I double checked with pertronix and set up my coil like this...
http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=181287

- I used a test light and I have power to the coil
- I ran a jumper wire straight from the coil to the battery + and - to double check. No change.
- I pulled my pertronix setup and replaced with my original harness, dist. and coil. Same problem.

Other ideas:
- Am I hooking up the starter incorrectly?
- Is it possible I am not getting a full 12V from the battery either?
- Should I start looking for a grounding issue?

Any help or procedures would be greatly appreciated!
Please help me start it!

[vincevs]

On the coil I have it set up as follows:
Positive:
- red 12V power wire
- yellow 12V power wire (starter?)
- red + from distributor
- black from condensor
Negative:
- black from distributor
- green autometer tac lead

[vincevs]

I gotta get this thing running tonight... anyone have any ideas where I should start?

[Everett#2390]

If you are sure you're getting a full 12 volts to coil + during cranking, no resistance in power wire, I would remove the condensor and tach wire and try again.
If this doesn't work, I would reinstall the point set and try again.
Try another coil with ignition only and yellow wire from starter.
By now, plugs may be wet with fuel, they will have to be dried out, maybe hold throttle to the floor as in a flood condition.

[vincevs]

THANKS!
- I will double check for a full 12V with a meter but the direct line to the battery should have eliminated that problem since it was fully charged (worth checking for sure).
- I have tried eliminating the tach and condensor... I'll try again
- Regarding the coil, I replaced the entire new system with the old points system and the problem continured... I don't think I can run the old coil to a pertronix III. Were you suggesting I hook up ONLY the red ignition power and yellow starter wire to + with nothing to the - to test for a spark by pulling the wire and watching for a spark?
- I let everything sit overnight and will be starting fresh in an hour or two again.

You know what... I painted the bracket that holds down the distributor! I bet that is my bad ground! I can't wait to get home!

[Everett#2390]

If you have the points set in, good. Getting back to basics is the key.
Yes, dist body, or the stationary contact of the point set should read continuity back to the neg post. Could be the painted holddown, but dist is mated to pump shaft and oil pump body to block. Certainly wouldn't hurt to try.

You should have ignition power to coil +, yellow wire from solenoid on coil +, and dist lead to coil -. You can use the Petronix coil if you like, just to test it.

[400bird]

Sounds like you have tried everything...
Just a couple ideas...
Where are you checking for spark? Try checking on the coil lead not just at the spark plug end.
Have you been using the same wires, cap, and rotor through all the testing?
Might be a problem in the cap or coil wire.
Check out any other parts of the ignition system you haven't been swapping.

Sounds like you definitely have power and probably ground.

[camarodude67]

You should try a HEI distributer and get this running for now... and revisit the old points setup for now.

Jeff G.

[vincevs]

Thanks guys... Turns out it was a bad pertronix coil. We bench tested it and THAT was the problem. We must have hooked up something incorrectly during the first switch back to points because we switched back again and got a spark. We got it running on the old point setup and broken in running a full 12V to the coil using the new harness (We figured there might be a problem with the starter connections on the old one). I took appart my original harness and added the resistor wire between the 12V lead and the + of the coil for 7.2V. Besides some temp. issues we had it running on Friday. I also got the allignment done and fixed a few other minor issues that required attention. As of now, it's just not running right and I assume the problem is that the 20 min. on 12V did a number on my points and I'm replacing them tonight to hopefully head out for another test cruise. Thanks for the help.
Now if Pertronix would just call me back from the messages I left on Thursday and again today....