Help no spark to distributor

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cudacrazy67

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Replaced everything ballast, coil, control box, and distributor, all with new parts I have spark when key goes to run position and when you go to off. What the hells my problem?
 
make sure , double check the ground from the ECU to the body. the mounting points are the ground
 
New parts is not equal to good parts.

What does voltmeter say at the + coil terminal?

Does rotor move when turning engine?

If you put a timing light on a plug wire, does it blink when cranking?

Is the gap set on the trigger coil? What is the resistance of the trigger coil?
 
Well it's probably not IN the ignition system

Run two tests.

Clip your voltmeter to the "key" side of the ballast, or if you cannot identify which side, hook to the blue alternator field wire (70/later) or to the regulator IGN terminal (69/ earlier) and the other probe to battery POSITIVE

Turn the key to "run" and carefully measure voltage, which should be VERY low reading, not over .2--.3v (3 tenths of one volt)

If this is higher, it shows you have a harness drop. You can provide a "quick test" by using a clip lead from the coil + terminal to a battery source, like the start relay stud, and see if it runs. Do not leave this hooked up for long

A second test you should make is to clip your meter to coil+ and to battery + Crank the engine USING THE KEY. You should not read more than .4V or so at the most, less is better.

Next clip your meter from coil+ to ground, and crank the engine USING THE KEY. You should see AT LEAST 10.5V during cranking.

Check for spark right at the coil tower using a grounded probe, which will eliminate bad coil wires or problems in the distributor. It is important to do this one of two ways:

Either do so USING THE KEY

or use the clip lead above, jumpering from coil + to battery, and then you can do so by jumpering the start relay.


BEST way to do this is to "rig" a spark gap, either buy a commercial spark tester or use an old plug, and use a piece of solid core wire and get the "test" plug up by the cowl so you can see it while twisting the key. Open the gap way out, and ground the plug.
 
Could this be the ignition switch? If so just the key and tumbler part or the wires that go down the column?
 
I have spark when key goes to run position and when you go to off. What the hells my problem?

Can you restate the problem? "I have spark" sounds good. "when you go to off" makes no sense to me.

Also, tell us what year, model, and engine you have and the mod.s done to the ignition. If a 67 Barracuda like your name implies, the "control box" is not factory original.

telsk's question is easy to resolve. Run a 14 awg jumper wire from BATT+ to coil+ and you will bypass ignition switch and ballast. Don't leave >2 min or your coil will get real hot (factory coil, what do you have?). If that works, follow 273's excellent post. If you don't have a multimeter, you will waste everybody's time.
 
A big hats off to everyone that helped. I did the test that 273 said and had a harness drop. Turns out it was just the ground wire from the coil to the dash. Three nights of scratching our heads for a damn ground wire. But hey , we got it. Thanks again, mike
 
Not to argue with you, but to help other readers, I don't think there is a ground wire from coil to dash. It was probably the IGN1 wire (usually blue), which gets +12V when the key switch is in IGN. It goes to the ballast resistor, where it drops to ~8V before coil+.
 
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