pick up coil(update) Grr whats goin on

hi, while driving along in my 68 dart, it never missed a lick, then it like coughed then took off then died..

after a few cranks it started and i drove home where it died again in my drive.

well i found out im not getting any fire..

so i figued a wire (electronic conversion) came loose or something.. well nothing looks loose all connections are soldered in.

so after swaping everything from the sun, I decided to swap out dist.. I used my 410 stroker (non vac advance dist) and it fired right up..

humm so i swaped in the reman one and nothing..

so off to advance i go, i exchange the dist, installed it and it started, now i have a stumble and a miss. just doesnt soud like it did before the problem started..

could the reman dist still cause this? I checked the gap in the pick up coil. i set it from .008 to .0010 and that didnt make it better or worse..

I swappped caps, coils, rotors.. ect... now im off to pull the plugs.. but i cant see why they would miss now when it didnt miss before the pickup coil went bad..

well i pulled out the re-man dist from advance, and replace it with my FBO dist (mech advance) and it runs like it did before all this began.. well off to to the store to exchange it with another i guess..
I guess this re-man dist was built on friday

Did you adjust the reluctor gap?

yes i adjusted it, when I got the second dist, the gap was way off and crooked, so i re-adjusted it.. ran like crap.. so then i installed a good dist (FBO) and the car runs fine except there is no vac advance..but advance said they would swap it out again..

Grr i swapped the dist out for another one, and it does the same thing, but when i install the MP (FBO modified) dist the car runs fine.. and to find out the Cardone brand re-man dist used the old pick up coil.. so thats 3 dist, first one just crapped out, the 2nd ones do about the same thing, the MP dist runs good no miss or stubbles at all..

is there a way to test the PU coils? I found out Cardone doesnt replace the PU coil.. it just tests it ect..

anyone have a good dist?

I don't know, but it sounds to me like the distributor might not be the problem. Is there anything in the two ? (three?) "bad" ones that are common, like cap, rotor?

Have you rechecked with the "good" one?

if i leave everything the same.. and install the MP (fbo)dist it will run good no miss or sputter, if i swap out the cardone re-man it will miss backfire ect..(timming the same) according to cardone the reman uses used (tested) PU coils and springs.. the only thing I have not swapped is the cap.. but its not that old (blue streak)..I would think if i had a bad componet it would miss/backfire with either dist.. but for the heck of it when I installed the 3rd cardone dist and it didnt run well, i replaced everything, coil, ballast, ecu (the wires are new blue streak..) still ran like crap, then I swapped the cardone dist for the MP dist and it ran just fine.. so that leads me to beleive its the dist still

The one difference between the FBO distributor and the rebuilts are the rebuilt ones will have a lot more timing in them than the FBO. Do sets up the his FBO distributors to use a lot of initial advance and reduces the mechanical a lot. If you are installing a factory rebuilt and setting the intitial to the same amount as you use with the FBO then you will have well over 40 degrees total timing at higher rpms. This could be causing the crappy perfromance.

yes that is strange that(3) in a row would be bad

actully i am setting the intial on both dist the same, 2.5 Degrees

Note:
Before top dead center
*Set at warm idle speed (600 RPM)
*Distributor vacuum hose disconnected & plugged
*Transmission in neutral (parking brake engaged)
*All accessories off

if I change nothing and just swap the dist only and use the same cap, plugs wires ect.., then both dist should act the same (no miss or back fires) but they do not..

if it was some other component falilure then it should act up with either dist (run the same, miss and backfire)

I have tried 3 ecus, 3 coils, 2 ballast.

I called Cardone they said they have had problems before ect.. but usally not 2 in a row.. they did say they test all the used PU coils to insure they work correctly..i wonnder if the advance mech isnt working correctly , like advancing the timming to far out??

off to work on her again ..

Quote:

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yes that is strange that(3) in a row would be bad

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the first one (#1)lasted about 3k miles, not one problem.. then just stoped.. first i tried another ballast, then I swapped ECUS, then I checked the wiring, then i changed coils, then i swapped dist (MP/fbo), and it fired up..drove it a day or so like this with no problems, then replaced the mp/fbo with a cardone (#2)and it ran but backfires and missed at right above idle..
then i swapped dist again with the MP/fbo and it ran fine again, so i exchanged thet dist for another, (drove the car to the parts store with the FBO installed (45 min) and no problems.. got home and swapped the fbo for the cardone(#3) and same dang thing, miss and backfire right off idle at about 15MPH or so is when it really gets bad.. I have the FBO in it again now..

anyway off to the store again..