TI distributor for 70, no spark
OK, I've installed the distributor and put a chip in the amp box. I carefully followed all the wires to make sure they were reconnect3ed correctly. I tried turning it over with a plug pulled to see if there was spark and there isn't. I turned the key on and the pink wire at the distributor has power (checking with a simple light voltage tester). i followed the pink line down to the plug at the amp box harness and there is power on both sides of the plug so juice is going to the box. Now, aren't I supposed to have juice on the white line at the coil? I don't.
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Re: TI distributor for 70, no spark
Yes, the ground is there BUT, ahem, I was flipping through my paperwork and a very small piece of paper that came with the chip I used to replace the old board says "be sure the chip has a clean ground inside the case". Maybe I need to pull that box again and make sure the chip is setting in there grounded well to the case, wouldn't matter if the case is grounded to the radiator or not if the chip isn't grounded to the case. Of course if that works we're not letting the little woman know I didn't read the directions.
That may be a long shot though, wonder if it's something else?
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Re: TI distributor for 70, no spark
Wayne, If you have a ohm meter double check the magnetic pickup in the distributor, at least that will eliminate that as suspect. Touch the two leads and I believe no more than 700 ohms but double check this.
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Re: TI distributor for 70, no spark
do you have the correct coil?Comment
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Re: TI distributor for 70, no spark
I have the correct coil, new 272 from GM Restoration.
Soooooo, I put the meter on the coil and the voltage was correct, tracked the wiring one more time but when I was pushing down all my spark plug wires again at the distributorI realized that I had clamped one side of the cap down but on the other side I swung the latch under the cap instead of the distributor, basically half on half off. Yep had my stupid hat on, latched it down and cranked right up. Chalk another one up to too obvious to see dumb moves.
thanks anyway guys, sorry the advice was wasted
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Re: TI distributor for 70, no spark
Wayne....I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but don't get it with a great deal of clarity what your error was
. I ask only because I have a '66 w/TI and soon be mating body to chassis......looking to eliminate simple errors.
Type slower, maybe I'll understand.
Last edited by Michael G.; March 24, 2010, 08:40 PM.Comment
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Re: TI distributor for 70, no spark
Pppppppuuuuuuuuuuutttttt ttttttttthhhhhhhheeeeeeeee cccccccccaaaaaaaaapppppppp dddddddooooooowwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnn ttttttttiiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhhhhtttttttttt
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Re: TI distributor for 70, no spark
Thanks for comical break, not sure what your attempting to say but was looking for a straight forward description of issue.....if it's not too much trouble of course.Comment
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Re: TI distributor for 70, no spark
Well, somewhere in it's life the TI got thrown out and a Mallory put on. Luckily the harness and amp box were still there but the wiring coming out of the ignition was rigged for a standard distributor. I pulled the amp box and opened and replaced the transistor board with one of the new chips. I went to Dave Fiedlers site (TI Specialty and studied the wiring diagram which of course wasn't matching what had been done to mine so I unraveled some of the tape to be sure where all the junctions were and be sure the wires coming out of the top of the harness were what I thought they were. I hooked up according to dave's drawings after putting in a correct TI distributor I was able to find about a year ago. I pulled one plug and grounded it so I could see if there was a spark coming through but there wasn't so now I started troubleshooting it. I turned the key on, the pink line comes out of the ignition and I checked that for juice using a simple light twelve volt tester, there was juice there so I went to the front of the car to make sure that there were no breaks in the pink line and found juice at the plug so I checked on the amp side of the plug to be sure that the plug wasn't the problem and there was juice there so I know juice is making it to the box. These things really have to be grounded well so I made sure the ground was firm into the radiator support and it was. Now I'm dreading that I will have to pull the amp box because I forgot to really really clean the contact the chip makes to the box for it's ground and kicking myself for not paying attention to the directions on the chip (heck it just drops in there how much can go wrong?).
Well, before I dug into that I got a current meter, turned the ignition switch on, and checked the current at the coil by placing the positive contact on the meter to the positive post on the coil and the ground on the meter to a ground on the car. I used Dave's troubleshooting guide on his site and the voltage table he had to determine which path to go next but the voltage fell into the correct range so that then points to the distributor itself as everything would be fine from the amp box (I dodged the grounding issue bullet at the amp box). First I pushed all the plug wires down good (dreading an internal problem in the distributor) when I realized that the distributor cap was only half way down, I had missed correctly turning the cap latch on the back side, really dumb mistake, not putting my cap down tight.
So, actually I would have never got my wiring correct without the drawing on Dave's web site and his trouble shooting guide let me know what to check for as far as voltage at specific points. Turns out I had actually wired it correctly but then spent two days hunting for an electrical problem that didn't exist...i just didn't put the distributor cap on straight. Sigh.Comment
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