Thread: No Spark

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HELLLLLLLP!! I must be losing my mind. I lost spark on my '84 454. It was running 2 days ago. I shut it off, took off the carb, rebuilt it, put it back on, no spark. Mallory dual point dist. Checked power to coil, good, replaced points, and ballast resister.
A little background, this motor had been on my engine stand for 3 years, went thru and primed the oil pump, new plugs, cap, rotor, wires etc prior to starting. Fired right up, carb was leaking (holley 850) rebuild kit, sandpapered the points and that was it. Now I have nothing. Trying condenser tomorrow, new ballast resister started smoking put old one back in. Anyone have any ideas? What am I missing? I know it must be simple but I need to step back and get some ideas from some of you to clear my head. I've been a gear head since my teens and you don't want to know how old I am. Must be losing it!

Could be the condenser. try starting it with out resister. I have had problems with dual points before. I put a folded over matchbook cover in one set and try then the other set. one may be shorted. ....I've benn doing this since my teens also and will be 67 this year

You could also hot wire it and see if that helps. It might be in the vehicle electrical, not in your engine. Who knows.

I bypassed the ballast resister, same result. No Spark!! What am I missing?!

If I have power to the coil the issue should be limited to the components between the coil and the distributor, correct?

I use to have one of those disti years ago. It was a pain. Check the cap and rotor contact. Check the point gap again. Got to be something simple. Hot wire it.

Hot wire directly from the battery to the coil and see what it does.

Rebuilding the carb will not loose you spark. If it was running and all you did was remove the carb, rebuild it and reinstall it then it should have been fine unless somehow you pulled on some wires loose and messed something up.

Also, try going back to your old rotor cap. I have had bad ones before, right out of the box.

Try a different coil

put an HEI in it

test for voltage at points while turning engine over (leave cap off) bet one set is shorted.OR the condenser is out

I still have one of those dist. out in the shop. In the cabinet a good place for it

Coil grounded good?

Thanks for everyone's help. Fired it up this morning! I'm sure that the neighbors were real happy with me out cussin and swearing until 2 in the morning last night. Not sure what the hang up was, but put in new points, cap, rotor, resister, took out one set of points, and condenser. I think that the condenser was the issue and the others that I had lying around must have been bad also. Thanks again the Eliminator is ready to hit the water once again!!