No start - check basics
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 677
Likes: 3
From: Metairie LA
No start - check basics
Been having a hard start when warm lately. Cold starts were instant.
Went out Saturday and it would not start at all - just spinning over with occasional cough. I have a permanently installed fuel pressure gauge on the HSR fuel rail - 40psi at key on. Hooked up the laptop and all sensors readings normal.
Checked for spark - nothing. Tested coil (small cap HEI with external coil) with DVM - perfect.
Started thinking ICM.
Pulled cap and this is what I found. The center post was just gone and the support for it was just powder. Surprised it was running at all recently. Changed cap and rotor ($26.00). Runs better than she has lately.
Keep it simple and remember the basics....
Went out Saturday and it would not start at all - just spinning over with occasional cough. I have a permanently installed fuel pressure gauge on the HSR fuel rail - 40psi at key on. Hooked up the laptop and all sensors readings normal.
Checked for spark - nothing. Tested coil (small cap HEI with external coil) with DVM - perfect.
Started thinking ICM.
Pulled cap and this is what I found. The center post was just gone and the support for it was just powder. Surprised it was running at all recently. Changed cap and rotor ($26.00). Runs better than she has lately.
Keep it simple and remember the basics....
Le Mans Master
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 6,475
Likes: 565
From: Clearwater Florida
..... I had several MSD caps do the same on my car in a very short time frame ... put an Accel cap on and its been holding up very well ... I called MSD tech thinking that they may have had a bad run or something and basically was told that I didn't know how to install a distributor cap ... 
... dude told me that if you could see any evidence of contact between the carbon and the rotor blade that there was something wrong with the distributor ... told him it was an out of the box new MSD dizzy ... that's when he said that I was not getting the rotor down far enough on the dizzy shaft ... I anally installed the new spare MSD cap and rotor and within 30 seconds of run time I could see signs of arcing at the rotor blade ... no more MSD caps for me ! ... they must be using Chinese drywall remnants to make the carbon buttons .... 
...............
... dude told me that if you could see any evidence of contact between the carbon and the rotor blade that there was something wrong with the distributor ... told him it was an out of the box new MSD dizzy ... that's when he said that I was not getting the rotor down far enough on the dizzy shaft ... I anally installed the new spare MSD cap and rotor and within 30 seconds of run time I could see signs of arcing at the rotor blade ... no more MSD caps for me ! ... they must be using Chinese drywall remnants to make the carbon buttons .... ...............
