I need help.

I swapped my 82 trans am to manual. Before the drive to swap the trans i had my mechanic replace the bottom end of the distributor (w a oe style accel, bought used) as the ICM kept making the car stall out. The new dist ran great. I drove an hr to start an auto to t5 swap.

We got the trans swapped, put her on the ground and ran into a spark issue. we replaced the accel ICM w the older one, and she ran. The older ICM wouldnt keep the car running for long, so I bought a new one. she fired up several times w the new ICM, now she wont. Is it maybe before the ICM, in the capacitor? starter? neutral safety switch?

I read that the LT1 starter from a 96 Caprice would work, so i got that. It bolted and fired the car right up. i did a quick read on the fly, but would the starter put out too much energy at any point and cause this issue?

What would keep toasting the ICM or causing this issue?

the car used to had an MSD ignition box, it crapped out on me, and we went back to the older style. We've hit a wall. the swap is done, but i cant even drive it. Is there anything regarding the neutral safety switch that needs to be done? I also didnt get the wire harness for my reverse lights if anyone happened to have that.

Im not 100% on all this. my buddy has been helping me through all of this. hes tried a number of things. I spent a solid $1500 to swap this trans, and i really dont want to spend more.. but, if i had to i would. Would replacing the MSD box be a good move? all the wires are already there.

I appreciate the help. thank you

 

Get rid of the MSD altogether. Put it back to STOCK: no MSD AT ALL. Just the HEI with the coil in the cap.

Then see if it runs. Then go from there.

 

the msd box hasnt been used in a year. i was back to stock setup. i replaced the ICM 2 times and had good results, but not sure if something is causing them to fail. or just bad parts.

Ive hear that i shouldnt replace the MSD box alot. so i wont, but this ICM issue is a pain in the ***. Fresh trans swap and i cant even drive it.

 

it felt like the distributor condenser was blowing ICMs, we swapped the condenser from the old dist, and put in a new ICM and she has been running well for hours. highway, and city driving.

 

quick question,...when putting your modules in, are you using the heat transfer grease that goes on the back side of the module? it's usually a white paste.

 

yes i did. a bunch of it. and it works well now.