Can't start, no spark getting to plugs
Sorry disagree. It does not take much of a jolt to "jolt me" but that does not "mean" you have "good spark. Just a few hundred volts can jolt the crap out of me and that is not 'good spark.'
Well Del, you and I are both making presumptions on the level of 'nasty'. As said by many, a good spark should jump a gap of 1/4" or more and be blue, not wimpy yellow. Getting consistent data with good confidence tests is what counts.
To the OP.....the fact that you don't see good sparks with the screwdriver is good info, but please make sure you are carefully to set the gap from the screwdriver to ground to pretty close to 1/4" inch. It can't jump a gap of 1" reliably. Del's point with the probe is to have a known consistent gap from test point to ground.
Next, please, take the screwdriver (or whatever probe you make) and put it in the end of the spark wire from the coil, set it up with a gap to ground (like the block) of 1/4", and see if you get a completely regular sequence of solid blue sparks as it is cranked. This needs to known. If this is good, then the coil is good, and then you can then focus in the cap and rotor area. If the spark from the coil wire is not good, then you can start working backwards.
(And BTW, I hope you don't mind my saying ..... this all can be done in an orderly sequence and it will save you time and save us all time in helping as we don't have enough high confidence info to work from. These circuits are all a case of 'A' causes 'B' causes 'C' to happen, so the best way to troubleshoot long distance is to do A, then B, then C in order. Guessing all over from A to L to X can't be followed by us.)
