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Old school GM Hei help...

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:21 pm
by mytmouz
Working on a 66 GTO for a friend. Body work mostly. But the engine was just installed prior to bringing it to me. (Owner drove it over, first time it had moved in almost 30 years). wiring was hacked, and I straightened it out. Engine is mostly stock 400 with 6x heads and a mild cam, backed by a Muncie 4 speed. I pulled the trans because the installer did not tighten the flywheel bolts properly, and it had a slight knock. ( I did this between Thanksgiving and Christmas). Couldn't get the trans in by myself, as it seems I am getting old... Last week i finally got some help and put the trans in, and finished buttoning everything up as I had time.

Owner came by a few days ago, and we tried to get it running. Put fuel in the new tank I had installed, and I put some on the float bowls of the new Holley via the overflow tubes. Connected the battery and spun it over.

Fired right up and ran. I would say about 45 seconds or so and died. Got my trusty spark tester out, and no fire to number one. Put my multimeter on the power wire for the HEI, and battery voltage was present. The distributor in the car is an aftermarket GM HEI copy,. Owner said he thought it was an Accel, but I am not so sure. It has a red cap, and did not come with a coil, so they had installed an old coil. I have a new Accel for a SBC in the parts stash so I swapped the cap/coil over, no fire.

Owner came by today and we tried a new module with the same result. Verified dizzy would spin by motor, dizzy is not loose, time is where it was when it was running. Pulled a valve cover and verified cam was turning (Doubtful a new chain broke, but you never know). Ran a hot wire from the battery straight to the dizzy, same result...

SOOO... power into dizzy, no voltage out, new dizzy, new coil, new module...

Any ideas?

Re: Old school GM Hei help...

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:05 pm
by John_Heard
Bad pickup in the distributor?

Re: Old school GM Hei help...

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2014 12:35 am
by mytmouz
Going to test it next. thanks...

Re: Old school GM Hei help...

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 1:22 pm
by jmarkaudio
Sounds like a Pro Comp, trash it and get an MSD distributor...

Re: Old school GM Hei help...

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 11:48 pm
by mytmouz
Owner is old and cheap. He would never buy a box, lol...

After thinking on it, I think the coil ground wire could be the problem. The top of the cap on the replacement I tried had to be removed to install the plug wires due to the hold downs being built in. The wire terminal just slid under one of the screws. Possible it just popped off when reassembling...