if u dont have any bad wires i would suspect the coil being bad. do u have another car or truck with the same dist that u can change the coil into to see if it works? if thats not it that would leave the pickup i think its called. thats why i was hoping theres a dist machine in your area. best way to find any issues in there. heres something i found.

Testing the GM HEI Distributor
A no-spark condition is checked by checking the distributor for power at the connector on the side of the cap. If there is power, disconnect the electrical connector and remove the cap. Check the rotor and the cap for excessive wear. Check the coil tower for excessive wear. Remove the top plastic cap on the distributor cap. Use an ohmmeter and check the coil positive terminal to the metal case of the coil. The reading should be infinity. Check the coil tower and the negative terminal. The reading should be 900 ohms. Check the positive terminal to the negative terminal. The reading should be around 700 ohms. If any of these tests show drastically different readings, the coil is bad. If the coil is good, the cap and rotor are not cracked or worn significantly and there is no spark at any wire, replace the ignition module.

 

Hey. I know i am getting in on this thread kinda late but I have a question. Where is your module located? Is it under the distributor cap? If it is, it should have some dielectic grease between it and the distributor base or it will fry it after starting the car just once. I put a new distributor in my '89 and it ran fine until i got back home and turned it off and it would not start back up. I found this troubleshooting idea in the Hayes manual. Hope this helps!!!

 

Thanks for the help Camaro 69, Craby, and marc104. All very helpful tips, I know for a fact my old coil didn't work, and my new one so far has shown all signs of life. I did use dielectric grease on each of my two 7 pin ignition modules, the first one had this weird white dielectric grease, which the guy at napa said he hadn't seen in a long time (probably so old it had been in a warehouse forever lol) I have changed the battery and tach spades from one to the other side to see if that was my problem and it isn't neither way worked lol. I will unplug my tach wire, thanks for that good idea. I did check continuity, and I don't know exactly what means godd and what means bad, I looked in my manual for the electircal tester and it didn't tell me what was what so if anyone knows how to read a continuity reading please let me know. I'm going to pick up a pick-up coil today after I try craby's tests, as well as continuity for my bat, and tach spades. I have tried most of crabys and got results that seemed to match up with haynes, but there are some there I havn't seen so I'll give em a try.

Thanks for the help guys, DacMan

 

At this point I'd say it's time to get a new distributor assembly. You've put far more time and money into it than it's worth.

$90 bucks: http://www.jegs.com/p/JEGS/JEGS-Chev...55778/10002/-1

$130 bucks: http://www.jegs.com/i/MSD-Ignition/1...oductId=760090

 

Jr. Mechanic I couldn't agree more, however I just figured out my issue, so now that I have more money in this pos and still have an old ugly distributor, I can hopefully get it running today, there is a plastic "box" labeled p.e.d. that hooks two of the pins from the ignition module, it basically is a box that holds the wiring for ground, and the other two wires that hook up behind the tach and bat spades, well yestereday when I went to put a new pick-up coil I noticed that the box was lifting from it's lower part (it's a two peice plastic box) and so I tried to snap it back on to it's base, when I did it split, (old brittle plastic) what I found when I took off the top plastic peice was that the two spades I was talking about above were ontop of a plastic sperator that keep the ports from the top plastic part. So apparently when I installed the new ignition module it slipped between the top plastic peice and this bar seperator, so I was getting any connection. lol. so stupid, but practically undetectable becuase I couldn't possible tell what was going on.

 

Hey Dacman, i am glad to hear you got your ride going again!

 

I really hate to say this, but I did get her running but she's running really really rough. I've retimed the thing 5 times now and still she runs rough, backfires through the intake, and coughs black smoke (running too rich). I don't know what to do becuase I checked spark on all cylinders and it's perfect. I measeured to tdc every time I re-timed, and pointed the rotor at the 7th cylinder so it ended up pointing at the #1 spark plug post. It's no 180 off either becuase it runs. For a while it ran rough but ran, and now it only runs if I yank the throttle wide open. And then when it does run it's really rough. Any ideas, I though maybe the fuel pump, but it's new, and that doesn't really explain the backfireing or running rich.

Thanks, DacMan

 

tripple check that the plug wires are going from the right place on the cap to the right plugs. sounds like u have one or more in the wrong place.

 

Popping out of the intake means something with the timing is off. That's pretty much cut & dried.
One or more of the cylinders are firing when an intake valve is still open, and that's what makes it blow fire back out the intake. Have you fiddled with rotating the distributor while the engine is running?

 

Thanks for the quick responses I really appreciate it. I did try twisting the dist. back and forth and I can twist it a quarter turn or more and back and forth and it barely makes a difference, thats what's got me confused. I've checked all the plug wires many times but I'll check again to make sure. It's really weird. What I'm beginging to think is that my o2 sensor it bad. I painted it when I painted my headers not knowing what I was doing, and I read online that they're really sensative. I wonder though how much impact an o2 sensor has if it's working in conjunction with a carb? Also its not backfiring near as much now to almost not at all. But like you said camaro 69 if it's backfiring at all it's timing. Could it be a loose timing chain? Ohhh also it won't really run unless I give it a good amount of gas, and then it will run rough like I said, It also runs really really hot, which I think runs hand in hand with running lean or rich right?

Thanks Guys, DacMan