1/11/11 The first time my 61 left me stranded. Need help diagnosing problem.

I am alway's bragging that no matter what my 61 Biscayne always gets me home. I has broken down on me twice, once pulling in my driveway and once on my street. Well she let me down late last night coming home from my buddy's house. I was driving along and then BOOM a huge backfire and the motor shut off and would not re-fire. My first thought was broken timing chain. Towed her home and did some quick checking the HEI is getting power, rotor is turnng when cranking, wiring all looks good, plug wires are still new but I am not getting any spark. Am I right in ***uming that the coil went bad? The distributor is only a year old.

I am a bodyman and struggle with mechanical issues especially anthing electrical so any opinions or diagnosis help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

 

Proform?

if so replace the module first, then the coil if the first one dont fixit.

Modules in general fail more often than coils, be it cheap chinaman **** or good stuff made here.

 

never ***ume. you need a special tool to get the tiny screws out, I think they are 5.5mm or 6.5mm and super thin wall socket. autozone/ oreilly can test the module, for free. Use plenty of the heat sink goo they give you with the new one.

 

I'd also bet on the module but they usually have something else cause them to go out.

One more thing to look at is the wires on the pickup coil. they flex just a bit each time the vacuum advance works and will sometimes fail right at the pickup coil.

 

The rotors always have trouble, the spark blasts through them ,replace this also.

 

This has happened to me too in a couple OT cars with HEI, if I remember right Advanced had a pickup with wires in stock, but the whole dizzy has to come apart...

 

check the tire pressures.. or x23 on the module... those can go out just cause they feel like it..

 

tire pressure wont fix it, that only effects the ballast resistor, and since this is hei it shouldnt have one.

 

try crankin' it TODAY, lotsa weird stuff happens on 1/11/11. Be careful, on 11/11/11, the whole motor could go !!

 

Convert back to points like the good Lord intended. Use NOS Delco pnts/cond and it'll never leave you stranded. It may run a bit rough after a million miles when it needs attention...but it won't leave you scratching your head and stranded

 

I have had the same problems with HEI's! I miss the old days when I would repair my points distributer on the side of the road with the spare points and condensor I would stuff under the seat after its last tune up!

 

OOOOH it happened on 1-11-11 make sure the clock is set right.. it could be a late y2k thing... lol yeah x2 on points.. there just so easy...

 

It might safer to crawl back into bed and give it a shot tomorrow.

 

did you remove the orig resistor wire when the hei went in? if not you need to remove it [wire] and wire it to the plug on the fuseblock marked ign with heavier wire[not sure of gauge]which will give you power to hei with ign key on.

 

Thanks guys, I will be switching back to the points type distributor tonight. I think there are a couple laying around the shop.

 

I have had a small hole burn through the center of the rotary ****on a couple of times over the years but they just shut off. (no boom)
I personally still like electronic a lot better than points.