Ignition overhaul

[das5439]

1978 C30 454 engine - driving on interstate 65 mph truck dies like I turned off the switch. Trailer it home determine there’s no spark so I pulled the distributor rebuilt it reinstalled it still dead. Run 12VDC from the battery positive to the distributor - still dead. Checked ground all good. I believe the Chinese junk I bought from Napa is bad so now I want to just purchase an all new distributor, wires and plugs for the old boy. So my question to you experts is what is the best and most reliable source for this purchase? I’d love to find American made parts. Any thoughts?

 

[fast 99]

Am sure there are aftermarket distributors that are decent but haven't used one. I go to pick and pull yards and buy used distributors, although have to say usable ones are becoming harder to locate. May be E Bay or marketplace.

 

[1lejohn]

I'm guessing it's an HEI dizzy. Did you change the electronic module? I had the wires back out of the plastic connecter on my 79 truck one time. The plug looked ok when you attached to the dizzy, but they didn't make contact. I had problems with the Accel brand distributors. The pickups go bad. I bought a FAST brand from Summit no problems. It's been on my 85 for a couple of years no problems. If the electronics are new, they can be bad out of the box you might try another one. O'Reilly's carries the Accel modules I didn't have any problems with them. If that doesn't fix it, It's probably in the pickup. I ditched the module and went with an MSD box on the FAST distributor. It's expensive, but reliable.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

Dui, stock, I run an MSD 6al, been very reliable. There is a module down under the plate, sounds like that is bad, and a cheap easy fix.

 

[1lejohn]

Dui, stock, I run an MSD 6al, been very reliable. There is a module down under the plate, sounds like that is bad, and a cheap easy fix.

Yes, that's what I call the pickup.

 

[Matt69olds]

Read this:

https://www.gmcmi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/HEI-Testing.pdf

 

[Camar068]

1978 C30 454 engine - driving on interstate 65 mph truck dies like I turned off the switch. Trailer it home determine there’s no spark so I pulled the distributor rebuilt it reinstalled it still dead. Run 12VDC from the battery positive to the distributor - still dead. Checked ground all good. I believe the Chinese junk I bought from Napa is bad so now I want to just purchase an all new distributor, wires and plugs for the old boy. So my question to you experts is what is the best and most reliable source for this purchase? I’d love to find American made parts. Any thoughts?

sorry for simple, but my dizzy had a spade connector on one of the connectors that fell off a few times. Luckily I had a leatherman on me and fixed it quickly.

 

[das5439]

1978 C30 454 engine - driving on interstate 65 mph truck dies like I turned off the switch. Trailer it home determine there’s no spark so I pulled the distributor rebuilt it reinstalled it still dead. Run 12VDC from the battery positive to the distributor - still dead. Checked ground all good. I believe the Chinese junk I bought from Napa is bad so now I want to just purchase an all new distributor, wires and plugs for the old boy. So my question to you experts is what is the best and most reliable source for this purchase? I’d love to find American made parts. Any thoughts?

Well I did replace everything except the pickup so one of the components is bad out of the box and I just hate exchanging these parts, in fact the three prong connector that runs up to the cap come apart so I had to make up another one.
Interestingly I bench tested this distributor and it will through a got spark for 1-2 seconds then nothing, unhook the power -reattach spin and spark for another 1-2 seconds. May be a bad condenser.
Coil ohms out good too, module checks out on the C terminal
I just want to buy good reliable internal parts for this distributor and not Chinese junk.

 

[das5439]

Read this:

https://www.gmcmi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/HEI-Testing.pdf

Thank you for this. Really good information. Guy put a lot of effort into this post. It’s appreciated