Need help with no spark

67Dart273 said
To get started, make a few tests..........

With everything hooked up "normal" turn key to run

Measure power on both sides of ballast. "Key" side should be "same as battery" and coil side should be somewhat lower perhaps 8V

Measure power at coil NEG. Should be quite low, 1V or so

Wiggle and work the dist. connector in/ out several times

Make CERTAIN and I mean CERTAIN that the ECU is grounded.

Hook the disconnected distributor connector..........the dist end....to your voltmeter on low volts AC. That's right, AC. Crank the engine. It should produce about 1V AC

Remove cap and examine internally for junk, rust debri, or strike damage to reluctor

Get a brass feeler and measure reluctor to pickup gap, .008". That's inches, not metric

Turn the key to run. Hold the coil HT wire near ground. Separate the distributor connector, and take up the vehicle side (not the dist end). "Tap" the bare connector terminal to ground. You should get one spark "snap" each time

Disconnect "everything" to coil except coil + and NEG wires, unhook tach, radio condenser

Thanks for the reply Del.

Here's what we measured when following your directions:

Test 1 Test 2

Battery voltage: 12.9 v 10.5 v

Ballast in: 11 v 10.5 v
Ballast out: 4.3 v 4.5 v

Coil + 4.1 v 4.5 v
Coil - 1.2 v 1.75 v

Resistance from control box to body ground strap = 0 ohms and passes continuity test.

Test 1 data is from my tune up gauge...
Test 2 is from my multi meter (Old analog one...)...

*****************************************************************

We were playing around with the shifter and found that it won't crank in any position P-R-N-D-2-1
however when we turned the key to the start position in each gear we would get one spark from the coil center wire to ground when we went to "start/crank position", then nothing and the starter would not crank...

Could the ignition switch or neutral safety switch cause no spark if we are jumping across the starter relay??? should we get the car to crank with the key first, then see if it will start that way???

*******************************************************************

Also, we tried to disconnect the distributor wire and crank is as you described and could not measure any voltage on either AC or DC scale while cranking with remote starter...