67 died on me!

[Nima]

Hey guys:
Haven't been here for a while. Moving, family issues etc. Talk about moving, last night my truck was one of the last thing I needed to move, about 15 miles. As usual with moving, things always get delayed. Long story short, at 10 Pm I am driving my truck to new place, loaded bed with wife driving behind. 5-6 miles in to it, all of sudden it dies while driving on street, no sound or anything. At first, I thought I ran out of gass since my guaged are not working right. I started to rewire the truck two years ago! which never finished due to moving!!. Anways, coast it to the side of street. Crank it, it cranks but nothing happenens. battery is not at it's best tehrefore I called AAA. After an hour or more, the guys came, very nice guy, put some gass in it, cranks but it is very weak. He put jumper cable in hope of weak battery since every time I crank it it is getting weaker. Jumping didn't work. We towed it to the house and now it is blocking the driveway with loaded bed. My plan was just to leave loaded in the carport that I have then I can get to it when I can.
Any idea will be greatly appreciated. Is it coil? I have newer mallory HEI with coil on top of it. By the way, my carb need to be tunned. It back fires and runs very reach. I don't know if that has anything to do with it.
Thanks. Sorry about the long rant.

[cdowns]

the HEI modules burnup when not wired correctly// when fuel filters clog engine wont fire// water in the gas wont fire//fouled sparkplugs wont fire

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Id pull one of the forward plugs out and have someone crank over the engine to see if you are getting spark.. On a sidenote just lean the spark plug on top of the ram horn to see if there is spark while cranking.

[QKENUF4U]

im betting bad module in HEI but as said make sure its got no spark first... like any other engine out there it has to have 4 things to run...
AIR
SPARK
FUEL
COMPRESSION

[BLACK AND BLUE 67-72]

Did it die just like you shut off the key? If so I'd almost bet money your HEI module went out on you!! Had the same thing happen to me several times in the past, I now keep one with me in the glove box, just in case!! lol

[ChevLoRay]

Mine used to do that. Changed HEI modules and it still did it. It wasn't until New Years Day, 2004, that I pulled the short straw and had to fix it. I had already decided that it was distributor-related and that a module wasn't the cure. So, out came the HEI and in went an ACCEL HEI....essentially a re-man. It was only about $10 more than a non-ACCEL unit. It has not missed a beat since it was installed.

Now, for the reason WHY.....turns out the wire to the reluctor had a break in it, that still made contact until you let off on the gas and the increase in vacuum caused the breaker plate to move. When it did, it died.

[Nima]

Thanks. I would say it is the module since it just died, no hicups or anything. Since I am still in process of moving, I hope I can to get in to it soon and unblock the driveway.
What is the difference between Accel HEI and Mallory?

[ChevLoRay]

The ACCEL was about $120. I never priced anything else except for the remans at Oreilly, Autozone and Advance. All three had the same (Cardone) reman distributor. I wanted the ACCEL. I don't know what the Mallory is priced at. The last Mallory I had was a dual point for an SB.

[socalkevin68]

mine did exact same thing...took me a while but finally...the timing chain gears were shot ...replaced timing chain and gears and runs perfect

[Nima]

Originally Posted by BLACK AND BLUE 67-72

Did it die just like you shut off the key? If so I'd almost bet money your HEI module went out on you!! Had the same thing happen to me several times in the past, I now keep one with me in the glove box, just in case!! lol

Several times . I checked the module, they are 50-60 bucks a piece.
As one of the board member said, may be Accel at $120 make more sense.

[Notrodder]

If you're gong to throw money at it, at least try to throw it in the right place. Put a timing light on it. Spark? Test fuel delivery. Gas? Given the condition of your battery, I'd suspect the alt (/reg?). Have it tested. If you're lucky, that is where you get to throw your money, otherwise you'll be fixing two problems.

[ChevLoRay]

Absolutely right....test and be sure. Don't throw money at a problem. When I changed my distributor, it was because all of the other options had already been played. Not a fuel issue, but definately a spark problem. At what point do you decide to R&R a distributor? In my case, I'd gone as far as I could. Nothing left to change. It was an HEI that was in my truck when I bought it in '99 and I had no idea how long it had been in it, nor whether it was a junkyard purchase or came from a parts house before installation. Did I just throw money at my problem? I don't think so. The problem with my distributor isn't a common one, and it is one that can be fixed with a new reluctor/pickup coil. Will I fix it? One of these days.....oh, and new bearings and whatever else it needs. But, it's got a new module it already.

[Dads69C10]

Mine did that the other day! i checked the #1 plug and was not getting spark. luckily it was just a loose wire on the dist.