I posted about a week and a half ago about some issues I was having, car would turn, and not start. Fuel was getting there fine. I ended up replaced the ECU, the Ballast Resistor, the rotor, the coil. Well I noticed I was getting fire to the Distributor from the coil, but not to the plug from Dist.

Well last saturday I pulled Dist, checked air gap, got it to .08 tightened it and reinstalled it. my mistake, it was backwards, BUT, it backfired, so I flipped it 180, and it started, and ran. ran great actually, althoug it seemed to start after I let off the key. Basically it'd turn and turn, but let off key and it's kick. Weird, it's a new Ignition switch? anyways. sunday all day, drove it around, it did that but it ran fine until night time ofcourse, I go to leave someones house, I fire it up and it stalls out on me. i start it with a little trouble, and I get about a 1/4 mile down the road and I'm fighting to keep it running, it's acting like it's running out of gas..then it dies..and won;t fire, check carb, i have gas, pull plug wire and find a ground, no fire, but I still get it at the coil-to-dist.

Today I changed the cap on this new MP distributor. Nothing, just turns.

It has to be in the distributor, right? Like the pick-up? it's the only thing left to my knowledge

i would check for a signal at the plug TO the distributor before i throw more parts at it. i would also check for rust/oil/ whatever build up on the 8 points that the pickup senses.

You're not getting ignition power during cranking, only during "run". Check your bulkhead connector--the two connections that go to the BR & ignition.

well now it doesn't start at all, but I'm guessing you mean that when it was doing that it was some sort of link to that issue?

yeah, the wire harness but make sure you check both the bulkhead side and the distributor side. and make sure the that 8 prong 'thingy' is CLEAN.

wait a minute, did you say that the coil was firing properly? if so then the pickup is working right.

Well i tried the relay jump with a screwdriver, and i had a plug wire check on that one..no spark..

and during the test you had the ignition in the run position right?

did it run right before you changed the ignition switch? are you 100% sure the rotor is meeting the top of your new cap? dab a little grease on the top of your rotor and see if it transfers to the cap.

key was on when i jumped it. nothing.

cap on the Dist. was the one that came on it. then i tried a new one from Napa, the rotor button itself I always make sure the spring is making contact, the new one has a wear mark.

the ignition switch I replaced because the one that came in the car was shot. so I put this one in about a year ago..it's been doing fine as far as starting until late last week.

ign sw could be bad....

so, while you are cranking over the engine, there is ALWAYS spark coming from the coil and making it to the cap, right? but nothing comes out of the cap (grounded plug wire, visably able to see a spark jump)always?

Its the pick up coil in the distributor. I had similar issues and mine tested bad with an ohm meter. 400-600 ohms is where it should be.

I'm leaning at CYACOP, I was digging around in my junk and found an old 318 distributor, I cleaned it up, put the rotor and cap on it, stuck it in the engine and guess what, i got spark. Must have been the pick up? Now I need to charge battery, I'll get back to you on weather it still does the thing at the key.

When we went through this last week, that is what I suggested as well. Mongoose, you need to get a voltmeter and check for ohm's and ac voltage. You should get 375 to 450 ohms when tested and 1 volt AC when you spin the dizzy. If you find that to the issue take you're meter to the store with you and test the new one at least for ohms before you leave the store.