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1973 Camaro won't start and no spark from coil

Thanks to everyone reading this post. With 95 combined years of experience gathered around the hood, neither my father, my uncle or I could figure out this issue.

We pulled the 350 tranny to replace it with a TCI Streetfighter tranny and converter.With the tranny out and the engine stabilized by a jack, we tried to fire the engine. It started, ran very rough, and then died after 3-4 seconds. The Camaro would not start again. Then we started testing things. Checked for spark at the plugs, no spark. Checked for spark from the coil wire, nothing. Replaced coil, cap and rotor since they were a little old. The Camaro still wouldn't fire. The starter turns the engine, but there is no spark at the coil, even after replacing with a new one.

Prior to pulling the tranny, the engine ran strong. It is a stock 307 with a points distributor. Never had any problems with it.

Anybody have any ideas? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, TJ

Reply to
TJ
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Did you seal up any open vacuum lines ie the transmission modulator ?

Reply to
Terminal Crazy

Were any wires grounded to the block using the bellhousing bolts? Or any other bolts you removed? Did you check for voltage at the coil?

Also, when it does run, it'll run rough since there's almost no flywheel. It's probably not a good idea to run it that way.

-rev

Reply to
The Reverend Natural Light

My '78 ran fine. I turned it over once a week when i was having a TH400 built to replace the exploded/dead TH350. It was held up by a piece of 3x2 across the inside of the wings.

Anyhow, let us know how you get on

Reply to
Terminal Crazy

My uncle was taking out the bolts on the passenger side, so I don't know if there were any wires there. I will check the wiring and see if we missed some wire that should be grounded or otherwise connected. I will also check the voltage and see what I can find.

I believe that this is something electric. The rough idle could be a timing issue, if we bumped the distributor or something, but it would still have spark.

Will post back when I check on it.

Thanks, TJ

Reply to
TJ

I tried it with a 2.8L V6 and it ran funky. Probably has to do with the balance and weight of the crank.

-rev

Reply to
The Reverend Natural Light

My thoughts on your problem...

Do you have 6 volts to the coil? Are you sure that you re-wired the coil correctly? Are all of the ground straps back in place? How many wires going to the starter? How about the points and condenser?

...Ron

--

68'RS Camaro 88'Formula 00'GT Mustang
Reply to
RSCamaro

Many thanks to all who posted. The culprits were the points and condenser. As soon as they were swapped, the engine rumbled to life immediately.

Guess I will keep a spare set of points and a condenser in the glovebox from now on, just like Dad always said to do.

Thanks, TJ

Reply to
TJ

On 9 Jun 2006 07:26:36 -0700, "TJ" puked:

Is there a reason you're still screwing around with points? I put a Crane Cams module in the distributer of my Elky and haven't looked back since. It even has a programmable rev limiter (mine's set to

6500 rpm). No one can tell that it's in there because I'm using the stock distributer, and it cost around 50 bucks.

-- lab~rat >:-) Do you want polite or do you want sincere?

Reply to
lab~rat >:-)

TJ, Like lab-rat said ditch the points and go HEI or do his thing if you want to keep the stock look. If you go HEI just remember to replace the resistor wire from the coil all the way back to the firewall plug with a good 10 or 12 gauge wire.

Thank You, Randy

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Reply to
Randy

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