I could write a book on this. Had a buddy of mine here for about 2 hours, he has had a lot of practice with dist. and wiring. We started with checked the new Pertronix coil, which is rated for 0.6 ohms, meter was 0.8 on primary side, then checked the secondary side 8690 ohms which is good reading for the coil. We then hooked + of coil to battery direct, still would not start. So then we checked for power for the crank and start from the switch, found no power I think on the crank { not sure ,getting a messed up in my head], so he says need to make sure ignition switch is ok, but in the mean time wants to double check the Pertronix II dist., checked ignitor plate to battery - ground is good, no signs of the module paper on back side burned so he feels was ok, then he wanted to do the bench test of the unit, I told him that I was sure per Pertronix you can not to do the bench test only the original one, but he still wanted to try it, so we pulled the dist. did the testing, you use a voltage meter, you are to get 12 volts each time you turn the dist,[ each lobe] shaft, but got mostly no reading, so he now feels the unit is bad[ both the dist. and coil are brand new], so he tells me to order a new unit for the dist. and trouble shoot the no power for the crank no ??
So after he leaves, I pull out the ignition switch, check the brown wire for continnuney , thought the bulkhead, for both the run wire which is blue/white stripe, and the crank wire which is brown wire, no problem, no corrosion, check 12 volts to the switch, tried the switch to make sure I did not loose anything inside as to power out was rock solid. So I feel the switch is not the problem. Going back the dist, I reread the email I got from Pertronix, person Andy, it clearly states not to bench test the dist, with Pertronix II module, so I really think the dist. module is not bad.
My bad, I took a short cut with both the old A/M dist and this new unit, in that when I wired the dist red wire, into the wire I had going to the + on the coil, I did not run a full wire from the dist, red to coil, I am think since the dist, red wire in hooked into the wire that it is causing a problem , in the fact that the coil needs to power up and down to build up the high voltage.
So I have added a lead to the red wire from the dist. need to reinstall the dist. and hook all wiring up , reinstall the ignition switch to test my theory.
As a side note when my buddy was here , he also wanted to do a static timing set up check, we did this before pulling the dist. I am not quite sure on this, but he used a test light ,something about cranking , but it did not work so again he felt that it backed up he idea the module in the dist was bad.
At this point I really do not want to order a new module till I can check my idea about the short cut on the wiring, I need to also confirm why no power on either the run, crank side from switch.
To add to all this , the car is a 69 Cuda, however I updated to a new alt, with the 2 fields on it, so the wiring is modified , running the newer style voltage regulator, which is where the run wire [blue/white] wire is hooked into, so maybe an issue there.
The odd thing is I have had this car running for about 3 years now, only at the end of last year it really started acting up, running poorly, then to no start now.
