Hello gents. This thread is as old as dirt but I will try it anyway. I put a ready to run dizzy that uses a HEI type module in my 318 poly. It ran great for a whole season. I am currently going through very similar issues. After winter the car started for a minute then died. I tried to start it again and it would fire and die. I ASSumed it must be the ballast resister so I replaced it. The car fired up for a minute and died again. I then realized something was letting it run until that something got hot and failed, I figured the spark module. I replaced the module and boom I was up and running. I took the car on a 6 hour trip and it was great. The day after that trip I drove about 10 miles and it started to sputter and just died. Same dish, start, run for a minute, die. WTF? I then started to check voltage which seemed low at 10.5 volts at the coil with the ballast resistor removed obviously and the whole system was never awesome in the first place. I have had the car die at a stop sign at night because there wasn't enough voltage to keep it running so I upgraded the altenator to a later model 85amp with the little square control box and the extra field wire required, cleaned the bulk head also. I sent the distributor back to the seller and he sent me a new one. Put it in and car runs again, Victory! Plus my lights and everything are now bright. This is not the end of the nightmare. Days later the same issue, sputter, die, stranded. Then I started checking voltage more closely and I was still getting around 11 volts at the coil. The wiring to the amp guage appears very good, the ign switch is a replacement(by previous owner). I even went as far to put my original coil and points dizzy back in. That ran for about a week with no issue and then you know what, sputter, die. It fires, runs like garbage and dies quickly. At my wits end. I am convinced it is the wiring itself. The only thing that is confusing is I hooked a wire direct from the battery post to the coil post and it still runs like crap and dies. Perhaps the coil or points are already ruined so that test is pointless?
