what a puzzle

i found out why 383 was not cranking,it was not getting any fire down to plugs.replace plugs and wires friday and fired up and ran until i turn it off,today back to no fire to plugs,i changed ballast,voltage regulator,coil,nothing,even changed the ignition switch,nothing,something is blocking power to coil,distributor,plugs,but what can it be?i checked power to coil it shows no fire,but i test primary and secondary it check out really strong. i am lost. this is dual point distributor has good ponts and the harness is new.

The first check I would make would be for power to and from the ballast resistor

You're saying it will crank but will not start? if so, unplug the yellow with tracer wire on the "ign" terminal of the starter relay to disable the starter & have a helper hold the ign key to "start" & you under the hood with your meter or a test light see if the brown wire to the coil is getting fire then release the key to "on" and as said see if there is fire/continuity to/thru the ballast (the blue wire ign1 "run" circuit) & on to the coil positive primary terminal.

it will crank,but no start.no power to plugs,or power coming out of coil,but coil test good.

how do i use the multimeter on that resisitor?

Dual resistor ~ 5 ohms across terminals and .5 ohms across the other set. Side to side, not up and down.
Single resistor ~ 1.5 ohms

unplug the 2 wire terminals from it. set meter to lowest ohms scale/touch probes to each ballast terminal. hold em tight for good continuity & let the meter numbers settle (my peeve of digitals). My last 2 terminal "single" ballast I checked was 1.6 ohms

thanks

thanks

tested ballast and i got 0.8,anyway to check ignition switch socket?

pull a batt cable off of its post before grabbing the meter (if using ohms scale). if the ign sw is in the st column seperate the dangling connector halves under the column & see if you have continuity between the hot power in wire (likely red) and the wire for the ign1 ""run" circuit when you turn the key to "on". then hold the key to "start" & see if there is continuity between the red wire and the wire for the ign2 "crank" circuit. www.mymopar.com will likely have the colors for you or you can likely figure it out just by seeing what gets continuity at the connector. First before this you might seperate the bulkhead & do the same procedure, you'll have the power in which is the fusible link coming in from the starter relay and there'll be an out wire for "run" circuit (might be blue) and an out wire for the "crank" circuit which might be brown. if the ign switch is in the dash, take it out and same thing, there will be a power in terminal and an "ign1" stamped terminal for "run" and a stamped "ign2" terminal for "crank", same procedure, looking for the open

Bulkhead connections ??? Check for voltage as previously advised.
if no v present, Try jumpering Voltage to the ballast, coil etc.
hit the key.

i went back to check coil positive with key in on pos and it has power coming to coil,i went and checked the ignition switch with key in on pos and i got lights from all the wire except the yellow wire that goes to the starter relay.it is only hot in start position i have figure out a way to keep tester light on wire while cranking to make sure light comes on to show power to relay.

that yellow wire will only be hot while cranking

my points might be open,i have to learn about points,still investigating.

Fuse able link ?

Hook light to neg coil and ground.crank should flash.If not either points are bad or dist inst turning.The pos side of coil should be hot with key on.Points condensor can go bad as can cap and rotor.if it flashes and no spark either coil cap rorot or coile wire.oh yeah no crank is totally different than no start.No crank menas the motor wont turn over at all.Rocky

i checked ignition wires at socket this morning and all connections has power except the yellow wire,it has to be in crank mode before power appears,so i crank motor with light on yellow wire and there is no power coming from that yellow wire in cranking mode,does that mean starter relay is bad?car will turnover but no start. thanks

If the fuseable link was burnt opened there would be no voltage anywhere except to the main starter post on the starter or starter relay

if it is turning over there has to already be power from the "st" terminal on the ign sw out to the yellow wire to the "ign" terminal on the starter relay as that is what closes the SR to engage the starter

if the starter is working then the starter relay is fine

you have voltage to the coil with key on, you might chekc for voltage while cranking. those are two different wires on the ign switch.

if that's good then it's time to start looking at yr points...or...i'd probably go back and double check the points first...

still a puzzle,i replaced rotor,cap,wires,plugs,it fired one time last week and ran good.since then no power to plugs,the coil is getting fire and fire is coming out strongly,but not getting to plugs,i changed points as well.strong battery.alternator maybe?battery cables?

Pull the cap and look to see if the rotor button inside the cap is still there. If so, ohm out the coil wire, you may have a break in it. I've seen the coil wire do that and have enough juice to appear to work if you pull the coil wire and test for spark, but not enough to jump the gap int eh cap and the plugs.

i will test coil again what should the pos side be with switch in on pos.using a multimeter,maybe it does not have enough spark to jump to distributor.

not sure how you got test the coil out of what I wrote.

Is the rotor button in the cap?

Did you ohm out the coil wire?

puzzled solved,i bought a piston stop tool and did the crank by hand backward first and then clock wise to set tdc on compression stroke reset balancer marks they were off,install distributor with 1 plug wire and set rotor near number 1 plug wire.fired right up and i made some adjustments to timing,running even better now with new plugs,wires,points,rotor,condenser and proper timing. thanks to all who helped me.thanks

Success! Curious, how far off was the dampener & what did you set the initial to?

it was about 12 to 15 degrees off,i set inital at 12,i have to tweek a little more with timing,and i have to learn how to set total timing i have no clue yet on that.if you have knowledge i would appreciate it. thanks