My car just died with no warning at a red light last night.Pushed it into a gas station and couldnt get it to crank.Tried some starting fluid and still wouldnt crank so I checked for spark and had none.Checked all over the dis. cap and all looked ok.So I got my stock coil and put it on and started right up,but it was arcing out of the plug tower.I figured it got damaged somehow in my garage so I bought another oem stock replacement and it`s still arcing.Whats the problem.Tried a new wire and same thing.That was the third msd coil in the past 4 or 5 years.A bad wire somewhere?little help please.

 

Bad wires, bad plugs, or a grounding problem.

 

Ok.I`ll start with some wires and plugs.I put a plug wire on the coil that completly covers the tower plug.It`s no longer arcing but If I hold my finger about an inch or so away it arcs to my finger,slightly.Is that normal?I dont know how the plugs could be bad cause I just pulled them to read them the day this happened.I removed the valve covers also to check the rocker arms cause I have a tick under load but not during Idle.Think it`s just an exhaust leak.I was wondering if I messed with something when i had the valve covers off.I checked the grounds on the back of the heads the best I could.

 

No, that's not normal. Are you sure you've got the wires clipped onto the plugs fully?

 

Didnt think that was normal,never seen it before.Just double checked them and they look fine.Started touching some of the other wires and a couple of them would gimmie a little shock.Went to advanced and they didnt have the ac delco 8mm in stock and I`m not spending the money on accels and the like for the same thing.It was getting late so I`ll get some tomarrow.Guess I`ll go down the list and hit the plugs next,cap and rotar last.By reading my plugs i found I could go one heat range colder.

 

Only a few shocking wires can be an indicator of bad plugs there, or a break in the wire near the plug.

 

I traced it to one bad plug wire.Replaced it and car runs perfect.Seems a little odd one wire went bad and caused all this.Wire had a lot of carbon in the boot.Ran near the headers,maybe the heat caused it.