71 440 And I have checked all I know. New ign. coil, ballast, wiring harness. Have start voltage to ballast and coil when I try to start. The dist came with the car but in a box. I put a new pick up in the dist by eye ball...as in .008. Not sure if the neg post on the coil should ever show anything, but there is no stark out of the coil to the dist, thus, no spark out of dist. Will the dist dictate how the coil acts? Can a dist be bad other than the pick up? Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks guys.
How do you test a distributor?
- Thread starter dusty1
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belmateo
Well-Known Member
you need to have the correct gap with a brass feeler gauge (not sure of the spec) because of the magnetic pickup. That controls the spark from the coil. Once you have the gap set correctly it should spark.
fishy68
Tyr Fryr's Inc.
What ignition box are you running? A 71 would have had points from the factory so the ignition must have been changed. Here's a run down on the sequence of operation
The distributor pickup supplies a small amount of voltage to the ignition box which in turn fires the coil. The coil amplifies the voltage to a much higher amount which is the big spark you get. So to answer your question yes the dist. will dictate the actions of the coil.
Get a brass feeler gauge and set the gap at .006~.008". That alone may solve the problem, especially if your running a MSD box as they are very particular to what the gap is set at. Another problem you may have is the ignition box may be bad. Most auto parts stores will test it for free if you take it there.
The distributor pickup supplies a small amount of voltage to the ignition box which in turn fires the coil. The coil amplifies the voltage to a much higher amount which is the big spark you get. So to answer your question yes the dist. will dictate the actions of the coil.
Get a brass feeler gauge and set the gap at .006~.008". That alone may solve the problem, especially if your running a MSD box as they are very particular to what the gap is set at. Another problem you may have is the ignition box may be bad. Most auto parts stores will test it for free if you take it there.
I have a factory 71 ignition module. I got a wiring harness from Year one for electronic conversion, so all is stock except for an electronic dist. The ign, coil, harness, ballast, have been changed. The car did run on the Mallory duel point, that is why, I have decided to throw money at the dist. It came out of a box that came with the car. I will brass feeler check my eye balled .008 and see it that is the deal. Thanks a lot for your help here guys, and as typical, I ebayed a new dist and should be here next week. We will see.
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