I was leaving work yesterday and got out of my parking spot but the car died before I got out of the parking lot. Started fine, put it in drive, drove fine then just died. Cranks, and I can smell gas. Towed it home, unhooked MAF and shot some starting fluid in the intake, still will not fire. I had just installed a new MSD Billet Distributor about 3 weeks ago, so I thought maybe that went out, reinstalled the old stock distributor, still no spark. No spark coming out of the coil, tested by cranking the car with a spark plug attached to the coil wire. I checked all my fuses, then checked them again, then checked with a volt meter. I do have 12.2 volts going to the ECM-Ignition from the fuse box under the dash. I read on hear about checking grounds to the distributor, and from the distributor tie down bolt to the battery is 6 ohms. I used this website to ohm out the coil http://chevythunder.com/hei_remote_c...ion_system.htm and my results were close-ish, test 1 was good, test 2 was 4.8k, test 3 was good, test 4 was 7ohms, it is a MSD Blaster coil, the more expensive one I think they called it the E-Force coil when I bought it.

So, it was working and died out of the blue. I don't think it's the ICM because I swapped in a known good distributor (I only replaced because the stock one was original and I wanted to "improve" my ignition system and I like MSD products) and I still have the same problem. Also, the MSD distributor came with a new 2 wire connector that goes from the distributor to the coil, so I know that's not mixed up with the IAT sensor that I've seen be the culprit on this board before.

I'm not sure what to check next, any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

1987 Camaro IROC-Z28 5.7

 

I have tried removing the 4-pin connector from the distributor, still no spark coming out of the coil.

What is the proper way to ensure that power is being applied to the coil? I can't seem to find directions on how to do voltage tests on the coil and/or distributor.

 

So I wasn't able to back-probe the connectors on the coil, so I disconnected the 2-pin connector from the distributor and checked the Pink wire, and it had 12.2V on it. I changed the distributor back to the new MSD and eyeball-checked the timing based on the rotor, #1 cylinder and the mark on the harmonic balancer to 0. I changed out the 2-pin wire from the coil to the distributor back to the old one I had. Still no spark.

What am I missing?

Are the coil readings bad enough to actually cause it not to spark? I actually don't have a ride without this car, so it's difficult to get to a parts store, but doable if I'm confident I can get the right part. Is there something else that could cut spark?

 

Went to the parts store and bought a buffet of parts. The coil was bad. Swapped to new coil, it hiccupped and eventually got it to run. Change coil back, and no spark. Ended up getting the lower-end MSD Coil, the Street Fire one, it was cheaper than the cheapest off-brand stock replacement coil, MSD was only $21 and the "mastercraft" was $24. I thought that was strange.

 

Glad you were able to work it out. Surprised no one chimed in to give you a hand. You were already on the right track with the coil. Great job.

 

Agree! great job diagnosing it yourself! you should be proud of yourself. I hate electronics carp!