Ok I put gas in my car yesterday, drove about 5-10 miles and all of a sudden my car backfires like it blowed the exhaust off. I got it in a driveway and tried to restart it. It kept turning over but it was spitting and backfiring but would never fire. you could smell fuel real bad and there was black smoke coming out the tailpipes. I got it towed home and tried to turn it over again and it wouldn't even spit anymore. the engine would just turn and turn no backfire no nothing.
I pulled the coil wire and laid it on the car and turned the engine over and it has spark from the coil. But I pulled multiple plug wires and non of them has spark. Could this be the pick up in the dizzy bad? or the whole dizzy?
I didn't get a chance to take the cap off the dizzy and look at it cause it was already night time and all I had was a little flashlight with dying batteries
But does this sound right to you guys? or could it be something else? It's a 91 z28 tpi

 

Does the distributor rotor turn when you crank it?

 

I'm not sure. I didn't get a chance to look lastnight. I didn't think the timing chain was broke because right after it happend it was trying to start back just never did.

 

Sounds like you may have jumped time.

 

Yup, probably broke the chain or stripped the sprockets.

 

well sh*t
ok I guess when I get off work today i'll check to see if the rotor is spinning. Is there anything else I should look for?
and thanks for the fast replies guys.

 

If the rotor still turns, put a timing light on it and see if it's way off.

 

Can you check the timing just by turning the engine with the starter? cause she wont fire, just keeps turning over.

 

For the purposes of this, yes.

 

Ok, I'll do that tonight and post back

 

my bet is the ICM , ignition control module . inside the dist. , has the wire plug in . easy to change , be sure to coat bottom with provided grease . good luck .

 

Well guys. I got home lastnight and took the dizzy cap off. Turned the engine and the rotor did spin. So I was going to get my timing light but the wife wasen't home yet to help so I went and got my vom to check the icm. Well I was getting ready to take it off when I notice something shiney "wraped" around the dizzy. So I got a flat head and moved it out and guess what it was..... the brass contact that goes on the rotor button lol It had broke loose and somehow got bent around the dizzy.
Well I have a whole dizzy from a Trans-Am. So I just swapped them out and bingo she fired right up.
But that leads me to a question. The part number is different on the icm. The factory icm and dizzy is for a 305 car. But the one in swapped in was out of a 350 car. Is there any difference between the two? And will it be ok to use it?
My car has a 350 swap in it and I swear it seems to run better with the trans am dizzy in it.

 

tpi v-8 dizzy doesn't know if it's in a 305 or 350

 

OK. thats good. Maybe the original dizzy was just wont out and the used one I swapped in is in better shape. My car idles better and smoother than before. and it seems to be a little more snappy on the throttle response.