The background: 51 Chevy. 55 235 truck motor/ T5, 12 volt converted, Rebel harness, 2 carter W1's Fenton intake and exhaust. Langdons mini HEI, their coil, plugs, and wires. I collected parts for a few years before going 12 volt and open driveline. So I had Langdons stuff sitting in my garage awaiting the swap. We got everything in and I took my car to my buddy to wrap up some things that couldn't be done at my house. In getting it running, he told me that the ignition module was bad, I called Langdons and he said that's very rare, but told me the Napa replacement part. He also lead on that a lot of stuff in the in distributor is used, which isn't a problem, given it works. Well, I got the care road worthy and other than it being hard starting it goes good. I assumed the hard starting was due to timing and or running rich. Before taking my pregnant wife on a cruise last night, I noticed some light smoke coming from the dizzy side of the motor. I assumed it was from the road draft tube and we left. It seemed under powered, which part of me thought was a weak spark, but also I knew timing and air/fuel wasn't exactly right. (Accelerator pump just dumps fuel so it floods out) Well.. We came to a light, and the car died. I had a hand and pushed it into a parking lot. I had no spark and power to the coil. A Napa run to replace the coil, and still nothing. My buddy thinks the ignition module is bad again. I'm going out there this morning as the one he put in is still under warranty. While this could be the problem, my gut is telling me there is a reason they are going bad, if that's even the case. I really need some help with this one guys. I'm going to be up swapping the ignition parts at 7am with a not so happy 6 month pregnant wife by my side. I have 12v at the coil and have verified coil is good. I replaced the coil, ignition module and still no spark. In testing the coil, that is fine. Best I can see is that the pick up coil that triggers the ignition module has gone bad. Again. This will be the second one I've used. I've done my research on this distributor and people seem to really like them. Has anyone had any issues? Or clues as to why it keeps failing?
I just put one of these in a couple of weeks ago, so I dont have many miles on mine, only a couple hundred or so. Did you run a 10 ga wire for power? Have you checked to see that you are getting a full 12V while cranking? I had a problem with the voltage being fine with the switch on, but it was going away while starting. Which coil do you have, the square looking one or the round one that looks more like the original? Also if you've replaced the module once, did you use the goop underneath to make the heat transfer to the heat sink? Good Luck.
I did put the grease underneath it. I'm using the round coil. Voltage was checked with a test light while cranking.
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