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Early Wenesday morning as I was returning home from work in my vette, the engine began to miss and then died. I saw smoke come from the hood and opened it up. I could hear the coolant bubbling. The temp gauge was pegged to the right. I called AAA at 1243 am and they did not arrive until 340am!! Later that morning I pulled the dizzy cap and the cap cover and I found this
Later that afternoon, I went to the auto parts store and bought a new coil, dizzy cap and cover, rotor, coil ground strip, and ignition module
I checked the starter harness fuse links which were not burned. I noticed the insulation on the tach wire had split open. The wire was not broken or burned so I wrapped the exposed wire with electrical tape and shrink wrap.
I assembled everything and then tried to start the vehicle. It cranks but does not start. Does the new ignition module look like it is properly connected? I did not purchase a new ignition module wire harness. Will do so if needed. I am stumped that this occurred and wonder what caused it. Is there anything else I need to check to get this car to start?
First off you overheated the engine. That has nothing to do with the distributor. The engine head did NOT cause that distributor damage, and those cooked wires did not make engine overheat. Put a timing light on and see if you get any flashes. Shot of gas or starting fluid to see if it fires. If not, Buy a whole HEI dist. on ebay or Amazon for about 50 bucks. Chinese crap but it works. Then get it running and start sorting out the other engine issues.
You are lucky that didn't go up in flames. Carry a fire extinguisher?
The only thing I can think of right now is, did you clip the wiring harness on to the cap with correct orientation or backwards? It will clip on either way, but will only start, one way. Thats the one behind the hot wire clip and the tach clip.
I would check grounds on car and that red and yellow wire had to get mighty hot to split open unless it is a Chinese replacement. The wire covering has to be rated for tempertures that might exceed the operating tempertures of that area of the car. Also check on the new replacement if red and yellow wires cross, this seems to refrence a red flag in my experience working on these hei systems.
Early Wenesday morning as I was returning home from work in my vette, the engine began to miss and then died. I saw smoke come from the hood and opened it up. I could hear the coolant bubbling. The temp gauge was pegged to the right. I called AAA at 1243 am and they did not arrive until 340am!! Later that morning I pulled the dizzy cap and the cap cover and I found this
Later that afternoon, I went to the auto parts store and bought a new coil, dizzy cap and cover, rotor, coil ground strip, and ignition module
I checked the starter harness fuse links which were not burned. I noticed the insulation on the tach wire had split open. The wire was not broken or burned so I wrapped the exposed wire with electrical tape and shrink wrap.
I assembled everything and then tried to start the vehicle. It cranks but does not start. Does the new ignition module look like it is properly connected? I did not purchase a new ignition module wire harness. Will do so if needed. I am stumped that this occurred and wonder what caused it. Is there anything else I need to check to get this car to start?
It looks like both the Tach and Batt wires got smoked all of the way to the coil. There has to be a short somewhere in the harness (the 3-wire connector at distributor).
How does the tach filter look? It is mounted at rear of intake ahead of the distributor. If the wire is any indication, the tach filter is also toast. It shouldn't affect performance; just no signal to tach.
What is the condition of the distributor under the cap & rotor? Also, I would purchase the two wires with connectors (Tach and Batt that run to the distributor) and replace as they are toast. You can get the pair from Amazon for about $10:
Summit has it for $12 plus S&H (free Shipping over $99).
If you end up buying a distributor, I would go for the Accel Performance Replacement. I've had mine for over 15 years and it performs flawlessly. It does not include the coil or coil cover. It has the adjustable advance with the hex key so you can tune timing for performance.
The dizzy appears to be in good shape. I have a bat wire new in package I bought some time ago. I will purchase another ignition wire harness and tach wire and repair them. Will buy a dizzy if needed. I already purchased and installed a new ignition module, dizzy cap and rotor, coil ground strip, and dizzy cap cover, and coil.
Last edited by Oldguard 7; 05-25-2018 at 01:49 PM.
05-25-2018, 01:35 AM
Burned Ignition Coil Where What To Do Next
