Does anyone know if you unplug your ESC module on a TPI 305, if the car will still start? My car will not start. It will act like it will want to fire, but will never start. I have it garaged for the winter, and have been tinkering around on it, and now it will not start. I replaced the cap and rotor and plug wires because there had been a miss in the engine, and then after I replaced those items, it acted like it it was worse, and not firing on all cylinders, and now it is not firing on any of them. It sounds like maybe one might be firing, but not enought to turn the motor over. I double checked the the plug wires, they are all correct. However, I unplugged the ESC and tryed starting it, and it acted the same weather it was plugged in or not. 85 TA 305 TPI, 700 r4 w/shift kit.

if you unplugged the single wire like when you set the timing it'll start and run just fine. if you unplugged the multi wire harness to the est i'm not sure if it'd run or not. do you have spark? fuel? compression? it's got to be one of the 3 because that's all you need for it to fire.

Very good question. I will find out today. I know I have compression, I thought it could be a fuel problem, but I will check spark today...if it warms up here. High of only 10.

IF it started and ran before you did the plugs, wires etc, I'd start there.

Is the dist cap seated all the way down on the distributor? It's supposed to made to only fit one way, but beleive it or not, over the year, I've seen a couple of 'off' brand HEI caps that were made wrong and wouldn't fit right.

I see you have a 85, so you should have a coil-in-cap distributor. Did you mount the button in the top of the cap correctly? Did you hook the coil wires back up correctly when you switched the coil to the new cap?

Also check the power / tach wires to the dist cap. Those wires take alot of abuse over the years, and the main power to the distributor could be tweaked and not getting power.



HTH

I checked for a spark, and it showed a orange colored spark. And I also tryed starting fluid in the intake, and it didnt react any diffrent with or without the starting fluid? Any Ideas???

i would say check the fuel pump. if you hear the whine from it then change out your fuel filter. sorry for my ignorance but is it a tbi? i'm buzzed sorry it says tpi. i'm going to stick with the fuel though.

check the spark with a hei spark checker and not some home made or half assed method, there is a big differance. if you have spark with a hei spark checker and it won't light on starting fluid i'd be checking timing and compression.

Just replace the module. It's probably bad. Make sure you didn't crush some of the wiring when mounting the cap, too.