No Spark

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Just buy a new rotor and cap. Bending it back to normal is great and all but it's likely not making the best contact.
 
brodphish said:
Do I need to ground the coil?
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No. Maybe the tab on the rotor is pushed down too far, try to raise it slightly and try it again. It should be parallel to the rotor, and sprung up just a tad, if that makes sense..
 
Your coil does not need an external ground.

If the polarity is reversed at the butt connectors, you will need to hunt for the initial timing, AND, the engine will not take much throttle before crapping out. A check of the timing will reveal it to be jumping all over the place.

By this time, I wonder if she's flooded.

If your MSD is currently your amp, it requires the ignition and start wires to be jumped together to provide a continuous signal to the amp. This cannot be so wired on the factory ignition switch, as the starter solenoid will receive a continuous battery voltage, and pulling it through the ignition switch. If it can pull hard enough it will try to crank the engine every time you put it in Park or Neutral.The proper solution is to use a small isolation relay. I think the MSD instructions detail this procedure.
 
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Going to stop on the way home from work tomorrow and get a new cap and rotor. We'll see what happens "butt" I am encouraged. What are "butt" connectors"?
 
brodphish said:
Going to stop on the way home from work tomorrow and get a new cap and rotor. We'll see what happens "butt" I am encouraged. What are "butt" connectors"?
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Crimp on connectors that are very reliable for causing problems, where ends of wires are pushed in and crimped down.
 
Picture in post #43, just below the distributor. Looks like Violet and Green wires. Those are the inputs for the MSD trigger.They are normally soldered and shrink-wrapped to the pick-up wires.
 
Darthomas said:
Only contiuity on the primary connections.
No continuity to anywhere from the secondary center post, not even the case.
In the middle of trying ready the house for sale, so may not be moved and able to cut it open till later this
summer. It must be arcing inside to complete the circuit. If it did have continuity to either end of the primary, it wouldn't be biting me when I puled it with the motor running.
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I suspect your coil has a isolated secondary design. The secondary terminals are the center tower and the case. You should have continuity but high resistance between the two. That would not be the original type used on the car. It works the same as a coil used on a distributorless ignition that has two secondary terminal for spark plug wires, except that one terminal on your coil is the case.
 
So I replaced the distributor and rotor the evening. It sounded like it wanted to start for a second or two and then nothing. Looking closer at the two caps it seems like they might have different # 1 poles. The first pic is the new cap, it looks like the #1 pole is right above my thumb for clockwise rotation. The second pic is the old cap and the #1 pole is just to the left of the clip. I rearranged the plugs to correspond accordingly, again it sounded about to fire for a second then nothing. I have a new MSD master blaster coil on order for Wed. pick-up, as I am concerned the stock coil is not powerful enough. So my questions now:

1. How should the plug wires be arranged on the cap?
2. Replacing the MSD coil with a new MSD should eliminate that variable (a statement, I know)
3. How do I measure the reluctor gap, still not clear on that as it sits inside the cap?
4. Anything else????

I really enjoy using this car and it irritates me when it's down.

001.JPG


002.JPG
 
Let me clarify the #1 marker appears right under the clip so I am assuming the pole just to left is #1 with a clockwise rotation?
 
OH boy!
We are gonna have to start at the beginning.
Do you know how to find#1 TDC/compression?
This is the TDC mark on the balancer, with the #1 piston at TopDeadCenter on the compression stroke
If yes, then get it done. Then check to see that the rotor is pointing to the frontmost intake bolt on the drivers side. This is very important; Number 1 TDC on compression stroke and rotor pointing to the frontmost intake bolt on the drivers side.
Back up the balancer to 10* advanced.
Loosen the dizzy and push the Vcan towards the firewall, until the nipple is about sitting at 90* to the vehicle centerline, or a little further back.Pop the rotor off. Align the nearest reluctor-vane with the pick-up sensor magnet in the sandwich.If you have to move the dizzy push the Vcan to the rear. Reinstall the rotor.Take a marker and index the side of the dizzy at the spot where the rotor-tip is. Drop the cap on. Find the closest tower to the mark. That will be #1.If the cap is not so marked. push or pull the Vcan to make the correct tower sit above the rotor tip.Then reset the nearest reluctor-vane to the magnet again. Snug the dizzy, and erase the index mark. Reinstall the wires as may be required.Start the car and set the timing
 
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brodphish said:
1. How should the plug wires be arranged on the cap?

You did pull the old cap, with wires attached, put the new one on and transferred the wires, correct?

3. How do I measure the reluctor gap, still not clear on that as it sits inside the cap?
Click to expand...

You measure the reluctor gap with a BRASS feeler gauge, the gap between the reluctor and the pickup should be .008.

044.jpg


The reluctor is the rusty piece that I have the arrow pointing at. The pickup is around the other side from the arrow. There is a slight gap there. I still would clean that reluctor up if it were me.
 
Resolution and the car is running great. Last Friday I put it on a flatbed and took it to the local speed shop about 10 minutes away. The MSD box was bad, a new one installed along with the new rotor and cap. The bad wiring some of you pointed out was cleaned up or replaced. It's mostly import tuning and pro touring quality cars there they have an old part-timer who is a Mopar nut and owns a late 60's Road Runner. SO it was in good hands. The car now starts better, idles cold WAY better, run much smoother at warm idle an under throttle. It also seems to run cooler??? I think the box and wiring were never really right since I've had the car but it's always made plenty of power. Thank you to all who took the time to respond. I learned some stuff along the way.
 
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