Forgive me first, I know very little about Distributors. I have an HEI distributor that was put on my 67 special 300 before I bought. The car cranks but no spark. I tested for spark with a dwell meter and it shows no spark. I then tested for pulse and there was none. The coil seems to be testing according to specs. What do I do?This obviously is a newer conversion or aftermarket distributor that someone paid good money for.
Did it ever run? If you look at the electrical connections at the cap, you will see the letters "BATT", and "TACH". Pull the Batt connection and make sure there is battery voltage with the key in the run and crank positions.
Have you replaced the module inside the HEI if it was a stock HEI? When that module goes out, no spark...no nothing. As was said above, make sure you have your 12 volts getting to the distributor. Steve
Pull the cap and check the 2 wires comming from the pick up the the modual. A common problem with HEI's is that with the advance moving all the time the 2 wires move as well and they break. Give them a little pull to see if they are still attached I think they are white and yellow. Its not expencive to replace and not hard either! Hope that helps?
What you guys are describing is different than what I thought I had. Like I said, I have very little knowledge of distributors. Here are a few pics of the distributor opened up, maybe this isn't HEI? pic 1 Pic 2 This car ran fine for 6 or 7 months, but than had some carb problems and then just didn't start one morning about 2 months ago. I finally just replaced the 2 bbl with the 4bbl and now I would like to drive it.
Ok figured some things out after looking around in the TA catalog and online. It looks like I have Petronix on the distributor. ou: I googled a page on the Galaxie club site (not that I would ever purposely go to that site myself...) that told me to run a hot wire from the battery directly to the red wire coming from the ignitor, if it still doesn't run than you know you have a failed ignitor. After doing that, it looks like that is my problem. So now I need to read around and find out about Petronix, if it's worth it or if I should go back to points. The cost isn't too bad for Petronix.
You would be much farther ahead by removing that thing and putting a set of points and separate condenser back in the distributor, much farther ahead. Those Ignitors are just plain junk in my opinion. If it were my distributor, I'd send it to IgnitionMan (Dave Ray) and get it converted to HEI. I am going for my 12th HEI conversion from Dave, and have had no problems with the 11 that I now own. Regards, Milton
Well the problem isn't the Petronix ignitor. The problem is the roll pin breaking and the distributor gear no longer attached to the shaft! The oil pump moves freely with no binding so I am assuming it's roll pin just where out. I can actually punch the pin out with my fingers and it wasn't a clean break. So now I gotta find a roll pin.
Any good hardware store should have a hardened roll pin. If the pin is the small diameter one some Buicks use, it is very easy to drill the shaft and gear for a 3/16ths one (.187). Usually, the holes aren't worn, just the pin. From my own personal experience, it is very likely you will encounter problems with the Pertronix, it is only a matter of time. Good luck with it. Regards, Milton
