Installing HEI distributor... problems

jojobanks said:

car is a 1970 coupe with a 66 289 motor and wiring harness.

I just put in my new HEI distributor and MSD blaster coil and now the car won't start. There's strong spark from the coil and I have 12v at both the + and - side of the coil with the ignition on. No spark out of the distributor.

Any advice?

Click to expand...

Hi,
I don't run a HEI, but,I found this it might be a start.
"If you have an HEI Distributor, it could be three things that will cause a no spark situation. A bad coil, faulty electronic module or a bad magnetic pickup coil. You need a good multimeter to test the coil and electronic module.
When the coil or distributor cap is replaced, check that the ground clip is transferred from the old distributor cap to the new one. Without proper grounding, coil damage is very likely to occur! Remember there are two designs of HEI coils. One uses red and white wires, whereas the other design uses red and yellow wires for the primary coil that are reverse polarity! If you have to replace the coil, be sure to get the proper one for your application.
You can test the magnetic pickup coil by inserting an LED (Light Emitting Diode) into the pickup coil connector and either have someone crank the motor over while you watch the LED or you can spin the gear by hand if the distributor has been removed from the engine. If the LED lights up while spinning the distributor shaft, the pickup coil is working okay. It should read between 700 and 800 ohms with a DVOM".
Hope this helps