Car info:
350 V8 Carb, I'm a car noob so I don't know what Kind it is, I know some TBI engines are converted to carb but not sure if this is one

I bought My 1989 trans am about 2 weeks ago, It didn't crank when I bought it due to the after market alarm that had an ignition kill. When I got it to crank it didn't start. I did a spark check and there was no spark. The plugs and wires seemed ok so I only replaced some. The car is not at my house so I cant work on it too much . I have a new Accel cap & rotor that I plan to put on soon. I would like some troubleshooting tips I can do when I have a chance to work on the car.

Also I found this New Distributor for sale for $75 http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/pts/1992782759.html will this distributor work for my engine? I don't really want to jump the gun and buy it, but its pretty cheap and I was already planning on buying a new pick up coil. so I might buy it if they still have it and if it work for my car.

 

hmmm

then can we assume that you've already determined that spark is coming from the coil but doen't come out of the distributor?

 

No i haven't checked the coil. Its just that the car is at my sisters house and she lives like 15 miles away. It would be easier to buy the part than going to test it and then buying it if it's not working. I'm going to going to put the cap and rotor later on today.

Also how do you test the ignition coil on a 89 T/A. I've been searching the forums, but can't find posts with good info.

 

well, if you have an external coil, simply grab a spare spark plug wire, a spare spark plug, plug the wire into the coil, connect the spare spark plug to the other end of the spare cable, ground the spark plug, ask someone to crank the engine and look to see if you get any spark from the plug.

If you do, yet get no spark from any of the plugs in the engine then try cap and rotor first.

if you don't get spark from the coil, remove coil, bring to parts store, have tested and replace if needed

 

I found the problem. There was some wires that go from the distributor cap to some connector. The wires had tape and they weren't touching the connector. It seems someone cut the thing that connected to the grey part and just put some wires, the black wire isnt even black, its just the tip, a bit further down the wire there's some tape covering where someone just cut a black wire and put it there so both wires are red.

The second pic is where someone also cut another end of a wire and put it on a wire that's connected to the distributor cap.

Oh and My car runs now!! had to put some fuel in the carb but it started

 

well done. With each repair you will gain more confidence.