Please help. No spark to coil, tried everything!

astronut1885

Founding Member
Jan 31, 2002
1,899
4
39
Assonet, MA
Hey guys. My car has been acting really bad lately. I've been having stalling/no spark problems intermittently, and I've replaced everything trying to find it. Now the car just won't start at all. I replaced the computer a month ago, the starter solenoid, my MSD wiring, I cleaned the stock wiring connectors, I just put a new coil, new wires, and a new TFI in tonight, but nothing is helping. Now I'm not even getting spark at the coil. I switched back to stock ignition to see if the MSD had blown, but there's no spark with that either. I can't figure out why I am getting no spark, but I need to get the car running asap. If anyone who knows what they are talking about can lend a hand, please do.

PS- the reason I replaced the coil/wires is because they were arcing all over the place. I had MSD pieces in there, and when we tried to turn it over, every wire and the coil arced all over. It was a lightshow. Now there's no arcing, but no spark at all to the coil.
 
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I would try a differnt distributer. The PIP or pick up in the dizzy supplies the signal to the tfi and the tfi feeds the eec. The eec tells the injectors and the coil when to fire. If all that stuff is new and its still not sparking I would suspect the pick up in the dizzy to be bad.
 
I'm helping him on this one (again lol). Does anyone know if the EEC Power Relay being bad could cause this? I just looked at some wiring diagrams, and the relay is part of the ignition. Should it not trigger the computer would never get power to send a signal to the computer, well at least the way I understand it from the diagram. :shrug:
 
That's about the only thing I haven't changed. Is that something that can be replaced, or does it mean I have to get a brand new dizzy?

Also, when it died today, I let it sit all day at school. I kept trying to start it, and finally got it fired and drove it home. As I was rounding the top of my street in neutral, it died and wouldn't start again. We replaced all the coil and wire crap a few hours later, and it wouldn't start again. I jogged the key a few times quick, and it fired up. It ran for maybe 5 minutes, then got really choppy. I went to the TB and as soon as I opened it up to rev, it died, and that was the end of it.

On top of that, any clue on the lightshow from the MSD coil and wires? It was arcing on anything metal it could get near, and between themselves. It was pretty cool to see.
 
astronut1885 said:
That's about the only thing I haven't changed. Is that something that can be replaced, or does it mean I have to get a brand new dizzy?

Is it stock one? Im sure they can be rebuilt, if you can get parts. See if a buddy has a spare you can try.
 
astronut1885 said:
Yep, stock. I guess me and Chris are gonna go JY hopping tomorrow, maybe I can score one cheap...

I see stock ones for 5-10 bucks on ebay... I bet if you ask here on the forums someone near by you prolly has a good one cheap. I got one in my garage but im in Indiana :D
 
have fun. FWIW you can get a new dizzy at autozone for around 100.00 with the tfi on it last time i checked.
 
Well, I found the PIP on Autozone for 25.00, but Chris is reading about the relay he mentioned, and it can also cause these symptoms. I already bought and installed a TFI, so I don't need one of those. If I can simply buy and install a PIP on my dizzy, I'll do it.
 
astronut1885 said:
Well, I found the PIP on Autozone for 25.00, but Chris is reading about the relay he mentioned, and it can also cause these symptoms. I already bought and installed a TFI, so I don't need one of those. If I can simply buy and install a PIP on my dizzy, I'll do it.

You can but yiou have to disaasemble the dizzy. youll have to remove the gear and the other pin to release the shaft so it can be pulled out so you can get to the pip. Its been a minute since I did one so I cant recall exactly. I can go look at my old one to see and ill let you know.
 
ok you will have to push out 2 roll pins, 1 is in the gear, the other is in the collar up closer to the body of the dizzy. once you push the pins out and remove the gear and collar the whole shaft slides out of the dizzy from the top.
I used a hammer and a small drill bit to pop the pins out and then was able to take it all apart. all you can do is try.
 
I had similar problems with my car except it got choppy, stopped, fired once more and died again, would not restart. Getting no spark, getting voltage to the coil, OK but no spark after that. So I go home and get my stock coil and module. Coil nothing, ok it's the module, still nothing. Tow home at 3am. Next day I pull the cap and I can see the distrubuter pickup had gone into the distrubuter wheel and had a blender effect. Got a new pickup at NAPA for about $25. Had to dissasemble the the dist. which requred a puller for mine to get the gear off. The wheel had been bent in the kaos, so I had to straighten it. Be sure it doesn't rub agains the new pickup. Put starter back, it fired up, set the timing, back in buisness.
 
Well, I tried taking the dizzy apart, but couldn't get it done. I got the pins out, but the gear wouldn't come off no matter what. I'm going to talk to my friend when he gets out of work, and see if I can use his spare one to see if that is the problem, or if replacing the PIP will be like every other thing I put on, usesless.