There is no rhyme or reason to electronics, good one minute then bad. If you are getting spark now take the pickup out of the one dizzy and move it to the other. I had one go bad several years ago and sometimes you would swear it was fuel related as it acts as if you're running out of gas at times. Mine would shut me down and might start right back up or I would have to sit for a few minutes and then it would start. I think it's a somewhat misunderstood piece that resembles coil symptoms, it's a matter of testing to narrow it down.

you have fire from the coil to dist secondary wire (the dist end) held 1/4" from ground sparking repeatedly when someone cranks it w the key but no fire at the plugs when you plug this wire back in the center cap terminal & go to start it w the key? or do you mean you have fire at the plugs but it will not start? On the reluctor I'd turn the timing marks to 10 BTDC on #1 compression & check if the rotor is pretty close to being under the #1 cap terminal and the reluctor is very near dead even w the magnet slot as it fires just after the reluctor blade moves away (in the direction of rotation as you know) from the magnet. this'll tell you that your initial and phasing are close. The fighting to keep it running sure sounds like classic ECU failure & it's possible for the 2nd one to be bad. 4 pin ECU? Still no go, jump fire from the starter relay large batt terminal to (A) the "point" of the pentastar connector on the ECU (all a 4 pin ECU needs) and (B) fire to the upstream side of the ballast and (C) a jumper from the downstream side of the ballast to the coil positive pri terminal. (D) Jump the starter at the starter relay & lets get this thing going. 4 pin ECU only needs fire at 1 terminal (the "point"), the coil only needs fire to the positive pri terminal (either full voltage in "start" or ballast reduced in "run") and the ECU only needs to be triggered by the dist to make/break the coil negative pri terminal to ground (& the ECU case grounded well) and the dist pickup only needs to trigger the ECU to make/break the coils' aforementioned neg pri to ground. It must start! EDIT you would set the timing marks at your initial amt rather than the 10 I stated (if it gets to that point).

when it wouldn't start at all, it was always fire to to Distributor cap, FROM the coil. beyond that I lost whatever spark I had, and that meant to the plugs.

But when i changed to a 37 year old distributor. i cranked it and got a heavy orange spark click click click to the header stud on the engine.

there is only one thing. the spark is getting lost from the top of the rotor to the terminals inside the cap. unless i've completely missed something.

Thats what I was thinking on that new dist. now this old on ei have in there at this moment, is getting fire. another issue I have in the TQ is not holding fuel in the bowls over a few days..I think it's got a slow leak. I'm still charging it, but hopefully here in a bit I can give it a try.

my 6pac does that too and i've read on here that alot of people have the same issue. Holley and TQ.

You're fuel is probably evaporating, mine does the same thing and it is freshly rebuilt.

ok, i got it fueled up and gave it a try.. Boom, it fired up normally, not after letting off key and all that..shut it down a couple times tried to get timing right, fires right up. I'm about to take it down the street and make sure it's good and solid.

hmmm, he's either walking back or out lightin' the tires!

So what does the issue appear to be/have been???

There is a small O-ring between the the baseplate and the body of that TQ that is shot causing your fuel to disappear. When the O-ring gets really bad the telltale sign of this is gasoline vapor "steam" rising out of the carb after you shut it off from gas dripping into the hot manifold.

Kevin

I'll look into the TQ issue, i had DemonSizzler go through it but the bowl seems a little "aged" so to speak.

It started, and I took it out for about an hour, no issues with that part of it really.. shut it down a couple times and it starter right back up, had to adjust idle setting to get it right.

Bugs me that i can't really "drive it" though, i put 93 in it with some octane boost, timing is at about 10+ initial on this stock dist. it likes to ping when under a load so I have to grandma it everywhere. Along with vibration in drivetrain and a "thud thud thud somewhere in the rear when i brake for a stop..lol I guess I'll get it all figured out, maybe go for a colder plug first...

the pick up or whatever in the new dist was jacked up, this old dist works well. It was original to the car actually. vac advance is plugged. last week i had 93 in it with 104 Octane boost, helped...a little.. But it's really annoying, i haven't had the car past 4000 rpm yet because of it.

Well we got it running. I dont think those octane boosters do much. Might need to proportion in some race gas then you can get on it & enjoy it. EDIT know that pinging is VERY damaging & must be taken care of

yeah theres a couple places i have found out have race as for about $5 a gal. might load it up and like you said, proportion it in.

Had some weird starting issues when I first bought my Duster like no fire and starting when I just let go of the key. I changed the ECU but still had issues. I have the 4 prong resistor and two of the leads were swapped when I checked them against the FSM electrical schematic which I believe was my whole problem.