No juice to starter

[bhayes1]

Just wanted to give a conclusion to this thread and say thanks to those who helped.

As stated above, I had a bad internal connection in the starter that really made me scratch my head. I'm thinking this was because of the self inflicted short I caused (touching the hot alternator terminal to the taller valve covers).

Once I got the truck to turn over I still couldn't get my 12 volt test light to show the coil was receiving power and here is the reason:

With a CD ignition installed it is normal NOT to see voltage at the coil with a voltmeter or test light. The only way you will be able to test the voltage at the coil will be to use a scope with a 100x probe.

This came off of the MSD site from tech support from a previous guy asking the same question.

Once I read this I went ahead and pulled a spark plug and sure enough I am getting a good spark.


It's always hard to troubleshoot when the PO has made modifications from stock, but I learned a few things about my truck. A little frustrating but I guess that is to be expected for a rookie doing a first time engine swap. Still need to button up a few things and she should be back on the road this weekend.