69 gmc needs started no spark

[pbro]

I've viewed this site for years and researched numerous articles, great stuff. I have a 69 gmc which the previous owner kept the engine and transmission they also stripped the wiring.

I installed a 350 700r4 from an 86 scottsdaleand up graded the intake to an edelbrock performer, carb is 1405 edelbrock and have an hei.

Since the wiring is stripped I have hot wired it which causes it to turn over but I get no spark. I have tested the ignition and replaced the hei coil but still no spark. Here is a simple diagram of how it's wired. Any guidance is greatly appreciated.


Power from batt to starter to, starter to hei positive side, starter to the alternator. Neg to alternator bracket. S post from starter to batt positive.
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[Jofin66GTO]

Problem may be on ignition side. My starter has pos batt terminal to large lug. The purple, or in your case a 12 gauge wire, on the smaller lug closer to block goes to my solenoid pos of ignition switch in cab. The yellow , or 20 gauge wire, on the outer lug of solenoid closer to exhaust manifold goes to my hei coil.

Now if you were like I was two weeks ago, in this setting, I could turn over truck but as soon as I let off key the truck would not stay running until I hooked up a 12 gauge pink wire to my ign spade on my ignition switch. Don't remember where that goes, but some outstanding members on here have a great diagram that helped me out

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/gallery/...&size=big&cat=
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/gallery/...&size=big&cat=

By the way. Thanks for drawings from boundstaffpress and Liz

Hope I helped out
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[Jofin66GTO]

Noticed links didn't work. Try this thread:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=185665
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[pbro]

I tried this and have no spark still. I recently pulled the hei from the engine and placed it in according to instructions. If I did this wrong (180 off) could this cause the no spark issue?
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[Jofin66GTO]

From my experience when the distributer is 180 out, I get nice backfires through the carberatur while turning over. if your testing number one spark plug out of block, you would still get a spark when rotor hit the cap.
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[Jofin66GTO]

Have you inspected the rotor? Don't know if it's true, but I've heard if it's cracked it will affect the spark. Can anyone else confirm this? Try also cleaning the contacts on cap and rotor or ensuring the rotor is making contact with cap. How are you testing for spark? Have you tried multiple cylinders just in case the one your testing is a bad wire or plug? Have you double checked spark plug gap? I don't take credit for this content listed but the simplicity on this site has helped me a couple of times figure things out.

http://americanstreetmasters.com/wiring_101.htm

Hope to help better this time
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[Shyguy]

The wire to the distributor on my truck is hooked up to the un-fused ignition connection on the fuse block under the dash.

Just to for testing you could hook a wire straight from the battery to the distributor.

The only wires on the starter should be the large power cable and the purple wire. The yellow wire was for points distributors.

[Jofin66GTO]

The yellow wire still goes to the coil. The only difference is the coil is built into the hei cap. Wiring is still the same as before just without external coil.
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[Shyguy]

Sorry, I must be confused, lol.

[Jofin66GTO]

Originally Posted by Shyguy

Sorry, I must be confused, lol.

Don't be sorry. I feel like I live my life mostly confused haha.
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[lil hoodlum]

I'm pretty sure you don't need the yellow wire either. I only have two wires to my starter as well. Large power cable from battery and the puple wire. Also red wire to the batt conection to the cap of the HEI distrubitor.

I would also check to make sure the three wires coming from the ignition module under the cap is securely hooked up to the top of the HEI cap.

If your not getting any spark to the spark plugs I would do as JoffinGTO mentions and check the cap and rotor. I would also check on the ignition module which is under the rotor.

Good luck,

Keith

[pbro]

Well I have tried everything suggested and still no spark. I appreciate your advice and please keep it coming as I wont give up until i hear this thing run....

I replaced the cap, rotor, and coil. I also have new plugs and wires. I made sure the rotor was aligned with the #1. The parts store checked out the iginition modual and it is good. Here is my engine drawing.




Got so frustrated I went fishing, think I have beeter luck.


Any more suggestions?

[Longhorn Man]

simple/stupid mistake I have made... make 100% sure the wire feeding the coil in the cap is plugged into the positive terminal, and not the tach.
Is the pickup coil plugged into the cap?
Is that Accell coil any good? (new Accell stuff is junk and not worth buying, they used to be semi-decent at best)
As mentioned before, the wire from the starter to the HEI is not needed. If you powered the HEI this way, it would spark for as long as you hold the key in the crank position, and then stop sparking as soon as you let off the key.

[Jofin66GTO]

Originally Posted by Longhorn Man

simple/stupid mistake I have made... make 100% sure the wire feeding the coil in the cap is plugged into the positive terminal, and not the tach.
Is the pickup coil plugged into the cap?
Is that Accell coil any good? (new Accell stuff is junk and not worth buying, they used to be semi-decent at best)
As mentioned before, the wire from the starter to the HEI is not needed. If you powered the HEI this way, it would spark for as long as you hold the key in the crank position, and then stop sparking as soon as you let off the key.

So is it a viable guess that S on the solonoid means "start" and the R means "run or running" power?

I am curious because when I was first wiring up my ignition, I didn't have the pink wire hooked up to the ignition switch as "lil hoodlum" mentions and you could tell when engaging starter the ignition was firing and running until you left off key and it would die. When I finally caught on and hooked up the pink wire to ignition switch, it would remain running when I released the starter from cranking.

Now I'm going to have to research how the ignition switch routes power in different key positions. And where does the pink wire go to from the unfused link in fuse block in the engine bay side to keep the engine firing? I was under impression that the main red power cable to the "batt" lug on ignition switch routed that power to whatever position the key is in. That's why you have an "ACC" position to power devices in the rear position for example. Am I correct? If so this would simplify in my mind the dynamics of the ignition system.

[big mike71]

If Accell is junk what do you reccomend.

[lil hoodlum]

I'm not sure how well you will be able to see from my picture. Ignore that it shows a inline 6 cylinder motor and old points distributor.

Pink wire should go to unfused plug-in. I have mine plugged in to the fuse panel inside of cab.

Purple wire goes from the S terminal on the starter to the back of the ignition switch. You might have a neutral safety switch on your steering column that the purple wire goes to first before the ignition switch. If you don't have a neutral safety switch the don't worry about that last part.

Keith

[Shyguy]

Originally Posted by lil hoodlum

I'm not sure how well you will be able to see from my picture. Ignore that it shows a inline 6 cylinder motor and old points distributor.

Pink wire should go to unfused plug-in. I have mine plugged in to the fuse panel inside of cab.

Purple wire goes from the S terminal on the starter to the back of the ignition switch. You might have a neutral safety switch on your steering column that the purple wire goes to first before the ignition switch. If you don't have a neutral safety switch the don't worry about that last part.

Keith

Thank you for posting the diagram, I am not as confused as I thought I was

Here is the setup I am running on my 454. Purple wire to "S" terminal on starter, big positive wire from the battery to large lug on starter and power to the HEI from the unfused ignition terminal on the fuse block running through a 30 am fuse and 10 ga wire. Has worked great since people on this board recommended doing it this way.

If it were not for this forum I would be stumped at times, thanks.

[Jofin66GTO]

Originally Posted by Shyguy

Thank you for posting the diagram, I am not as confused as I thought I was

Here is the setup I am running on my 454. Purple wire to "S" terminal on starter, big positive wire from the battery to large lug on starter and power to the HEI from the unfused ignition terminal on the fuse block running through a 30 am fuse and 10 ga wire. Has worked great since people on this board recommended doing it this way.

If it were not for this forum I would be stumped at times, thanks.

I may also like your way better Shyguy. I'm going to have to put ammeter across my way and your way to see which way provides the greater power to coil. I would hate to think that I may be getting a weaker spark if it makes a difference.

[lil hoodlum]

Jofin66GTO, the pink wire from the top of the HEI cap does not go to the ignition switch. It goes to the unfused ignition terminal on the fuse block inside of the cab.

The purple wire goes to the ignition switch. If you have a neutral safety switch on the topside, bottom portion of the steering column, then the purple wire connects to that. I can't recall howmany terminals are on the neutral safety switch, but two of them are for the purple wires. One of the purple wires comes from the starter solenoid and the other one comes from the ignition switch. If you don't have a neutral safety switch, then the purple wire goes from the S terminal on the starter solenoid to the ignition switch.

I hope that makes more sense.

Keith

[Longhorn Man]

honestly, for a stock or stock-ish motor, I would rather go to the junk yard and get an HEI coil that says DELCO on it as opposed to the rash of junk shipped here. I have a few of them laying around just in case I need them... along with modules too.

[pbro]

I don't have my wiring hooked up as I was going to buy a friends cab and the Po took the wiring out. I only have the ground from the battery hooked up to the alternator, do i need more to get it to start? I'm half tempted to wire the essentials to get it started.
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[Shyguy]

When we put my '67 together years ago my son bypassed the ignition switch since we did not have a key for it. He ran a toggle switch to supply power to the distributor and a push button starter switch.

It has worked that way for the last couple of years. Now since we are in the process of restoring the truck I probably will leave it that way and upgrade the wiring some.

I think of it as cheap mod.

[pbro]

What are your guys thoughts on this, taking the dizzy out and placing it in a vice, supply it with power and hooking it up to a drill. I then use a spark plug wire to see if it sparks? Any concerns?
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[Jofin66GTO]

Haha. That's why I love this forum. I would never have thought of that. Let me know if it works out. Theoretically I don't see why it wouldn't.
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[lil hoodlum]

Originally Posted by pbro

What are your guys thoughts on this, taking the dizzy out and placing it in a vice, supply it with power and hooking it up to a drill. I then use a spark plug wire to see if it sparks? Any concerns?
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Why not just leave the distributor in the engine and pull one of the sparkplug wires off of a sparkplug and hold the sparkplug wire with a pair of insulated pliers within a 1/4 or less to the sparkplug. What you are looking for is a blue arc of electricity the closes the gap between the sparkplug wire and sparkplug. If it is working correctly, it will fire when the rotor hits that portion of the cap of the sparkplug wire you are holding. Yes, someone else should be trying to start the motor so that the rotor is moving.

Please please use an insulated tool to hold the sparkplug wire. I would hate for you to get a jolt if it is working correctly.

If you get no spark, you know the problem is the distributor and/or wiring up of the distributor.

Good luck,

Keith