I'm trying to help my dad get his project to start - He has a 1969 Firebird (I know it's not a camaro but it's pretty close)with a 400 and we are trying to fire it up for the first time since he pulled everything out/apart. We are getting fuel but no spark. He currently has an accel distributor in it right now and I have all the wires in the instructions going to the right place - red (12+ key on) brown ( - terminal on coil) and black is to ground. Now with the key on there is somehow 12+ to both terminals on the coil ...I don't know if it's supposed to do that? I took the brown distributor wire off and the - terminal on the coil is getting 12 volts I'm guessing from the other side. I thought maybe we had a bad coil so I tried another and it had the same effect. Am I missing something here? Any help would be appreciated Thank you.

 

yes you will have 12 volts on both sides, use a test light. it should be on solid on the + side of the coil with the key on, and as you crank the motor over,and blink on the - side as you crank the motor over.
do you have 2 wires going to + side of the coil from the factory wires? one will come from inside the car and one will come from the starter solenoid.

you have any pics of the car? like to see some.
where are you from?

also check out this forum its for 1st gen Firebirds. I'm on there as well with this same name
http://firstgenfirebird.org/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm

let me know what you find out

 

that sheds some light I believe he only has the wire from the inside hooked up. We are in Houston right now and the car doesn't have the fenders or deck lid or hood on it - he had the engine rebuilt acouple years back and we need to get it turnin before it seizes. Once we get the fenders and stuff on I'll get some pics (kind of embarrassing lookin as it is right now) Thanks for your help Looks like I need to help him track some wires down!

 

Well we tried hookin up a light today and I'm not getting any blinking from the (-) side of the coil. I just told my dad if it was a ford it would have started by now ...lol - any ideas on whats causing it not to blink?
tony

 

pull the cap and make sure that the dist. is turning. With the ACCEL dist and the wires you refereed to I take it is not a points type. It could be a bad pick up in the dist.
Does the light stay on on the + side as you crank it? If so then your fine with the wires hooked up to the coil then. What the wire from the starter sol. does is provide 12v to the coil as you crank the motor, as the wire from the ing. switch goes dead in the crank mode.
Some pics of the motor, dist, and someof the wiring would help to see whats going on