If you have spark jumping at the coil tower, presumably from coil to high voltage coil wire, then you have spark and the ignition isn't the problem. The problem is in the distributor if there is no spark at the plugs.

Have you verified there is no spark at the plugs? Easy to do, pull the plug wire, insert a spare spark plug, lay it on bare metal so the side grounds (or use a jumper wire), and crank the engine. If it sparks in the gap, you have spark and your starting isn't the ignition.

If you have no spark, then you are losing it in the distributor. RARELY a rotor will break down and short from the center conductor through the plastic to the metal shaft. This was a common thing in the UK with my BMC Mini 1000. I used to carry spares of the rotor. But most Chevy Delco rotors don't fail like this. It could be you have a real cheap unknown manufactured rotor with cheap plastic.

Another possibility is the center conductor in the distributor cap is bad. Some used a carbon element and some used a brass or copper element.


Last would be the plug wires themselves. If they are in the original stainless shielding, they could have shorted. There was a reason most took that junk off the cars in the '60s and '70s.



While I agree that the Hall cell conversion is sound, there seems to be a disproportional number of failures with these. If you drop a Chevy HEI it, it runs. It runs forever, or at least longer than most ever drive a car. I have put several hundreds of thousands of miles on HEIs and the most I've had was a distributor cap or rotor go bad from age and wear.

I put in a Mallory Unilite in the race car, and abused the heck out of that car. It never failed. Yet invariably we have guys on the street that all of a sudden lose their ignition and they have the Pertronix unit. Eventually, there is something too sensitive about it for street use.

 

Try a regular GM coil. You might have to replace the rotor again. The super duper super high voltage coil could blast its way right through the rotor to the shaft and ground. You'd never see it but it will stop it from running.

Have someone try to start the car while you check voltage on the coil. On the positive (+) terminal, you should have steady 12 VDC since I believe the Pertronix wants you to use a full 12 VDC on the coil.

While cranking, the negative (-) terminal should be fluctuating the voltage. This is because the Pertronix just like the points is providing ground to the negative terminal to charge the coil and then break so the field collapses, producing a high voltage surge in the output coil.

If it isn't fluctuating, then the unit is bad or it is wired wrong or it has a poor connection.

 

Lots of tests offered by Pertronix, and very simple:


http://www.pertronix.com/docs/instru...ts/91168LS.pdf

 

????

The person should do the Pertronix checks described then do a 65GGVert suggested and jumper the "+" battery terminal to the"+" coil terminal and eliminate the dash switch and associated wiring

 

Maybe the coil tower is cracked and the spark is jumping to the case and grounding the spark.

 

Sorry for the lack of response and thank yous for the suggestions. I am out of town for the day but I will dig back into this tomorrow night if I have time. To answer some of the comments earlier. I checked for spark with a timing light, he cap and the rotor I bought were both AC Delco. I haven't actually used the timing light since I put new cap and rotor on but it didn't even try to start so something is still wrong. Not sure how I could have installed Pertronix wrong. Checked clearance/gap on the magnet and it did start up multiple times after I initially installed it. It was running for a solid 5 minutes and just died. I did replace the coil as it was still under warranty and that was my first thought. And for the points vs pertronix debate, I went with pertronix because I know many people that have put them in and never messed with it again for the next 10-15 years. I understand both have pros and cons. I'm going for low maintenance but not off to a good start. However, once I get this figured out and get tires and an alignment, this will be the first time it has been on the road since 1976. So excited!

 

Put a 12V test light on the distributor side of the coil and crank the engine. If the light flashes bright/off/bright/off as you crank the engine, there is nothing wrong with the Pertronix.

 

I tried this with a cheap 12v test light. It's one that looks like a screwdriver and has an alligator clip for a ground. When the engine is cranking and the light is touching the negative side of the coil, it appears like it was doing on/off/on/off but hard to tell because it's got an incandescent bulb in it and I think the on/off was too fast for the light to go all the way off. It was definitely flashing though. Thoughts?

 

I'd guess your purty tronix is good. See my previous post on the coil shorting to the case.

 

Do you have the shielding around the distributor and coil? This can be a short to ground sometimes. The box can cut wires to coil and lid can short the coil wire.

Check that there is +12v at the coil + terminal when cranking and when the key is just on. There should be two wires to it, one from the solenoid (hot +12v for cranking) and one from the ballast resistor (which you bypassed for full +12v).

You could have +12v when cranking and not when just "on".

If you still have the old cap and rotor, put those one and see what happens. Infant mortality is something that can happen with parts. They fail immediately, or they go on forever.


Need some photos.

 

Well she's alive again. I'm pretty sure the issue was the negative battery terminal connection. I measured voltage when ignition was in the on position and had 12v. Checked it when cranking and would drop to 9 and fluctuate between 9-10v. I took the negative battery terminal off and put it back on and made sure it was secure and it started right up. In other news, about 2 minutes after it started running my windshield wipers (that I haven't gotten around to trying get working) turned on so I may have done something by accident while I was in that area. Thank you everyone for the help. I'm glad that headache is over. Now on to the next one.

 

I'm glad you feel better about it, but I'm not so sure you're done with it yet.

 

Haha I'm pretty confident it should be fixed. When it died it was like someone flipped a switch and I think the negative battery terminal wasn't tight and it just vibrated loose. However, if it's not, I guess I'll just add it back on my whiteboard of things needed to be done to the car. I will be going through a lot of the wiring in the near future anyway.

 

Normally we would say "very good, next" but too many have to much invested in this one.

Here's your original abbreviated post:

I start it up and it's running fine for 5 minutes or so and it just dies like someone shut the key off. Haven't had spark since. I tried a new coil, replaced the cap and rotor, and finally came to the conclusion that the Pertronix must be bad. They sent me a new one under warranty and I replaced it and I still have no spark. I bypassed the Ballast resistor when I put the Pertronix in. Coil is an MSD Blaster 2 coil. I have verified I'm getting 12v to the coil.

Unless your curb idle is set low or your alternator/regulator is not fully awake on the job the car should have kept running even with a loose negative battery terminal. Seeing 12 V where you should is possible with a loose battery negative too, but a loose battery connection ought not crank the starter very long or at all. You claim no spark but that you had cranking - that does not add up. So I too believe you may not have found your problem.

Franks advice on guarding against wire pinch in ignition shielding is to be taken seriously (see attached photo of a friend's 64 327/300 when he didn't).

Dan

 

I don't have the shielding on the car. I thought that could be the problem because I have read about ground problems on these cars pretty often. The only other thing i can think of is that there is a bad connection/wire somewhere on one of the two wires going to the coil. Now that I can start it, I will move it to the main part of my garage where I have better lighting so I can take a look at the wiring. I tried briefly yesterday and traced them back to the center of the car behind the distributor but that's about as far as I could get until it was under some tape.

Before I took possession of it, the car had only been started a handful of times in the past 40 years. The license plate it took off of it expired in 1976. I got it running and then went straight to brakes and suspension. Now I need to get into electrical as there are a lot of issues there. Gauges don't seem to be working other than the mechanical ones, windshield wipers just started working yesterday. Its going to be pretty time consuming because the wiring under the dash is an absolute mess. I found a toggle switch hanging under the dash which after a lot of head scratching I found was to turn on the reverse lights. I believe that was done because for awhile, the 4 speed was taken out of it and it had an automatic transmission in it.

Anyway, If I discover anything else on this, I will be sure to update and not leave everyone hanging. Thank you so much to everyone for taking the time to write these detailed posts. I love this community! By the end of this restoration, I hope to be able to pay it forward and help other members when they run into issues that I have been there done that on.

 

My best advice, and I suspect the other fellas here will agree, replace the wiring harness, under hood and under dash. The easiest way to loose a C2 beyond leaving the keys in it is to use it with known to be faulty wiring. Good luck...and keep that negative terminal on the battery loose enough to be removed if you see or smell smoke.

Dan