Ignition system woes help needed

Hi all. I finally got my internet connection set back up. I'm now living in florida. So if any of you happen to be passing through the Navarre/pensacola area feel free to come say hi. Just message me if you need a place to crash or just want to hang out and cruise around with the vettes.

On to my issue. I shipped my car through the military and when it arrived the people at the vehicle processing center messed with my ignition system. Why, I have no idea and I sent in a legal complaint through the military.

I'm not getting any spark at all.

I've got a new alternator, new ignition coil (blaster 2), and new battery. All wires are solidly grounded and in excellent shape. I have an E-Curve digital distributor pn 8394 from MSD.

My engine will rotate and rotate, but will not turn over. Also, if I try to turn it over a few times my ignition coil gets really really hot. I've checked and I've got power going into the coil and out of the coil wire. I'm wondering if there is a short in my distributor, but before I ship it off to be repaired. I want to make sure that's the issue. Prior to shipping the vehicle I never had any issues with it. They told me they tried to jump it a few times and I'm wondering if that somehow fried it. Any help would be really appreciated. Also, all my spark plugs are good too. On a side note it's good to be back on the forums. I was starting to go through withdrawls hah.

-Rick

Welcome back, sound like your saying you have no spark at the plugs, if so you might swap out the coil. If still no spark call MSD and see if there is a test for the module to confirm it works. PG.

Nod, I called them yesterday. They think that the distributor has a short inside it and gave me an RMA number to send it in for repairs. I'm just hoping it's not that, because it's killing me not being able to drive my vette. I had to go without it for over a month and now it's just sitting inside my garage.

Also, about the coil. It's brand new.

On a side note. I love that white vette in your profile picture.

Thanks, I no what you mean about not being able to drive your vette, with the holidays and bad weather, I drove it today for the first time in a month. PG.

Hah, I bet it felt good. =) I keep thinking how much fun it's going to be to really open the vette up on the super straight roads in west florida. Hopefully your holidays were good. =)

For a christmas present to myself I bought a home in Navarre, Florida and two rifles. 3br 2 ba 1500 sqft 2 car garage on .23 of an acre. =) I got a really really good deal on it. So I finally have a place to shelter my vette. That was actually one of my #1 criteria. It had to have a garage for the vette.

So, what do you think about the distrib? Think MSD was right and it is fried or could there be something I'm missing? Also, I pulled my distrib out to look at it and reset the harmonic balancer back to tap dead center. I put my distrib back on and advanced my timing to where it was.

They tried jumping it from the alternator too. (I would have seriously hurt someone if they had done that with me around.)

The odd thing was that I took my cap off and looked for electrical scarring on the circuit board and it's clean.

why were they monkeying with it in the first place?

I think Wedge is right they may have crossed the wires while trying to jump it or they left the key on without the motor running. I don't no anything about MSD except that they are a good company and lots of people use there products. I'm sure they will fix it quickly and properly.
I have the stock distributor with the Pertronix point eliminator and its worked fine for the last 5 years.
Congratulations on buying a house, it's the best investment you can make. Great to no that some day it will be free & clear.
My house is about the same size but only a 1 car garage. PG.

Rick,  I think Wedge nailed it, sounds like the pickup unit, but...then again...... I'm stupid, LOL!. I hope you get it figured out. Of all places to live and drive a vette, you're in one of the best..especialy at the beach. I-10 and I-75 have some great long straight-a-ways, watch out for I-95 and A1A on the east coast...lots of cops over there, especially from Daytona to Cacao Beach. Well have fun cruisin' the beach when you get it sused...... Also the fishing is great in the gulf, just don't go on the party boats...thet're a rip. Congrats on the house and the rifles too. Cheers

Thanks guys =) Like I said if anyone is ever in west florida and needs a place to crash I've got an extra bedroom.  Guess I'll rma the distrib and hope that's the problem =)

Any ideas what would be causing the ignition coil to overheat? I'm siding more with the messed up distrib, but wanted to make sure I don't actually have two problems and am missing one.

One thing that would cause the coil to get hot is if it had a constant 12 volts applied from the distributor (or 8 volts in the run mode)

Rick,
Have you disconnected the lead from the coil to the dist and grounded it to see if you get spark from the coil?  If you get a spark, your problem is the dist.  Just make sure you aren't standing in a puddle... Blaster coils do get warm, but should not be hot to the touch. Like Shark points out, there might be a 12v constant short that is also energizing your coil and causing your battery to drain. Do you have 12v at the coil input with the key off?  As far as actually seeing damage inside the dist cap from a reverse polarity short would be pretty rare unless more than 12v hit it.  The pickup is really sensitive to polarity... one way only... ;)
Later,
Wedge

Hmm, I have not tried that yet. I'll test it first thing tommorow morning. =) Once again thanks for all the great advice everyone.

I was in the Military and the people who ship household goods and vehicles do some stupid things.  Make sure that you stick it to them good.  Make them buy you a whole new set-up and pay you for the time you spent, all of it, working on it.  Get everything new and start from scratch.  Tell them that they can have the entire old set-up.  Since they screwed with your car, you can get just what you want as they have no business messing with your car in that way.  It's a 'Vette with a special ignition system that they should have taken care not to screw up.  I'd stick it to them.  You CAN get it.

Hi Rick, the ignition coil is probably still OK. You wont get spark at the high side of the coil with a constant 12 volts applied to the low voltage terminals. The 12 volt input needs to make and break in order to cause the coil to spark, sounds like the distributor module or pickup coil is fried.

Hey Rick...
Just re-read that post that I wrote... boy, my head had to be up my backside at least 3'. Sorry!  I forgot my flow... pickup mod controls spark impulse... if the mod is bad, and I still feel that is the problem... no pulse to the coil.  Hope my troubleshooting folly didn't cause you to waste any time.
I think I was a little distracted packing for a 4 day heli ski trip in Canada... even forgot my goggles...
Wedge

No worries =) Hope your ski trip was a blast. I've always wanted to take a heli up a mountain and ski back down. 

I think I'm losing my mind. I found and repaired the fusible link. (The previous bubba had used a quick connect instead of a fusible and wrapped it in electrical tape..)

I also bought a new HEI distributor/cap/coil. I wired everything and put the firing order in. Still no spark. What could be causing this? I advanced the timing a bit by rotating the distributor clockwise and I think I'm starting to go crazy.

Where was the fusible link that was "bubbaed" up? And did you check all the connections as dv8 suggested? PG.

Sure did all connections are solid and the fusible link was located near the starter. The engine rotates strong, but I'm not getting any spark.

Ok in the corvette shop manual they show the fusible link at the B terminal on the starter listed as  "Thermo" ( a fusible Link ) but they show another " Thermo " from the alternator wire, this is the one you said sparked did you check this one too? PG.

Rick, I don't see on any of your post's where you replaced the control module within the distributor. If your getting 12 volts input to the HEI and still no spark then the trouble is in the distributor, either the control module and/or pickup coil.

I bought a new distributor with ignition control module to test. Also, the only one of the fusible links that was fried was the one with the quick connect on it.

Ok, so you have a brand new factory style HEI, the only thing needed is to have 12 volts input at the BATT. terminal and the module connector plugged in. An easy test would be to run a 12 gauge jumper wire from the alternator output terminal to the BATT. terminal on the HEI. Crank the engine and it should fire up, now you won't be able to shut it down with the ignition key because your by-passing the key switch with the jumper, just unhook the jumper from the alternator and it will die. So if this test works you then can use your multi-meter to check the wiring to see where the voltage loss is occurring.