Hi, I am working on a 79 Camaro with a Mallory ignition. cap roter he whole shebang and with a new coil, cap, roter i am still getting no spark at the plugs even after i buypassed the the Malloty ign box? i am realy stumped here and would realy love some help here on any ideas. all input will be helpfull

thx

 

Have you checked to make sure you have voltage going to the coil with the key on?
And are you installing a new setup following the instructions, or are you retro-fitting or working on an existing ignition?

 

yes i have checked for voltage in the coil, and the setup i am working with is one that the guy b4 me had on it witch i am trying to but back to the original because the Mallory ign box failed and i had to bypass it, so i went ahead and put all new stack parts in it along with a new stock ignition module so i am not understanding y there is still no spark.

 

Will the rotor spin? In that distributor, the HEI has that little module that goes out and does not spark. Is there a little black unit inside the this distributor? Sometimes those will not make the HEI spark.

 

Paz, good call. Frequency, check to see if the rotor in the distributor even turns with the motor. Do you have a service manual?

 

If it's HEI then there's actually three things in the base of the distributor that will send signal to the coil to fire:

1: The HEI Module which can be a 4, 7 and 8 pin connector but I'm pretty sure you'll be running a 4 pin if you're running HEI at all.

2: The magnetic pickup. If this goes bad it can cause a lot of problems with spark delivery. It is also a pain in the butt to change as you have to pull the distributor, knock out the distributor gear pin and pull the shaft just to get to it as it circles the entire base of the shaft underneath the rotor. When setting up the new one you must make sure the air gap is set properly and the tips aren't hitting and there's no binding.

3: The three wire relay/condenser that connects to the HEI module to the coil. This just connects the HEI module to the coil and has a radio interference condenser coil attached usually. It's rare that this is a problem but if there's a crack or broken piece where the wires go in this can cause condensation on humid/rainy days to enter the cap and cause problems until the vehicle heats up and dissipates the condensation on the interior of the cap.

If you're running an aftermarket HEI module they can vary a LOT. MSD has a fully digital one that is the condenser coil and module with wires all rolled into one and will look like a semi-circular microchip. Mallory has one that looks like red, semi-circular box and Accel has some that are similar only black with a big yellow Accel sticker on it.

I don't know why I'm telling you this last part as you know darn well what you have in there.

If your rotor isn't turning that's a very bad thing as it says either your oil pump shaft is broken, your oil pump is not turning or your distributor gear has sheared. All of these are bad things requiring a major amount of work. It could also be that the pin in your distributor gear has broken and isn't turning the distributor shaft.

Also, I haven't seen anywhere in here that you've stated that you're running an HEI setup. Is that the case?

 

You guys do realize that the last time the OP posted (2 total) is the last time he was here.....a month and a half ago? I doubt he's coming back for the answer, or he figured it out already.

 

No, I didnt *hangs head in shame*.

 

Same here... just saw that the thread had been revived and chimed in.