Ransford2987

I was cruising down the highway and just lost power to something. The engine died and I coasted to the side. I suspected it to be a VATS issue, but after working through that I found myself searching the forums for more answers. Since, I have replaced:
ICM
Dist. Rotor
Dist. Cap
Ignition Coil
and nothing fixed the issue. The engine turns over, but never starts. The fuel pump kicks on, but I haven't verified pressure yet. I hooked up a multimeter measuring voltage to one of the spark plug wires to try and test the spark at number one cylinder plug and got nothing, but I'm not even sure that short of a pulse would register (any thoughts?).

Where do I go from here to isolate this issue?

Ransford2987

I've found the culprit! Turns out the pick-up coil in the distributor was bad. After replacing everything but the dist., I didn't see any reason not to swap that as well. After putting it in, I tried starting it without expecting it to start, and sure enough it surprised me. I've attached a few pics to show my dist. and coil, in case anyone comes across this thread searching for answers to a problem similar to mine. From some of the other threads I've read regarding a car dying at speed, when the ICM was at fault, they could still occasionally start and run the car (probably until it got too warm) and then it would die on them. In my case, my car died and wouldn't start again. I don't know if that's how each bad pick-up coil/dist. acts, but if you have this problem, I'd just replace everything with the dist: Ignition coil, rotor, cap, and the dist itself. The ICM came with my distributor from autozone, so if you're looking at a new ICM, spend 50 more bucks and swap that dist. as well.

TallTim

iTrader: (2)

mine kept running...have not reassembled with new dist yet...

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...cap-rotor.html

Ransford2987

Just checked your thread; that's crazy! Did you just replace the cap and rotor and call it good? I replaced those as well and still saw no fire. Did you isolate the excessive heat buildup a short or something in the pick-up coil in the dist itself? If so, I wouldn't wait for that thing to completely go...JMO

TallTim

iTrader: (2)

Bought a whole new dist with ECM cap and rotor but have yet to install. The burned up dist did not spin very freely but don't see why that would matter. I'm thinking maybe the spring loaded button inside the cap came off causing huge arcing. Wierd thing was it was running so smooth like that I was able to inch the car up on ramps no problem. Go figure.

Ransford2987

That's pretty crazy...It's a good thing you found it though, as if you had continued running it for any serious length of time, more damage would no doubt have been done.