backed the 69 out of the garage last fri ( it has been running ruff at start-up then smoothed out ) went to work on a 78 SA in the shop at the end of the day went to move the 69 back into the shop #%^&^#@&(* it wont start. the previous owner has replaced the guts of the dist. with a magnetic pick-up and the pick-up is not adjustable. I can crank the car over--i have fuel-- the plugs look good-- have fire from the coil but i dont believe it is getting fire to the plugs consistently ( all the parts are new in dist and new plug wires)--with #1 off i could see the spark once (the engine tried to fire with the #1 plug wire off but when i reconected the wire nothing but engine turn over. the engine is very new and playn with the timeing doesn't help. the coil has 1 black wire to the neg side going to the magnetic pick-up--3 red wires ( one of which goes to the magnetic pick-up) and 2 cotton covered wires on the pos side ( too )(*&#@ many wires the 2 cotton covered wires seem to go through the firewall to the dash. does anyone know where these wires might go ( i would like to get it running before i change it over to HEI )

just a couple of thoughts. on a hei distributor if the module in the distributor is bad sometimes it will let spark thru but not enought to start (happenned to me and went crazy because car wouldn't start and had spark. changed it and it started right up).  sounds like a defective unit. this might sound stupid also but are the wires in right order and correct location on cap. also had a car that wires were off by one and car ran for a bit. sometimes even a weak battery might keep it from starting.

A similar thing happened to my '69 about two years ago. It turned over fine, it had fuel but no fire.

It turned out to be a pinhole in the coil wire boot and it was grounding out against the distributor shroud. The way I found out was painful...I had taken the lid of the shroud off and the car would start. I put my hand near...not touched, the coil wire, and I got a shock like you wouldn't believe. Pertronix named that Flamethrower coil right! I felt like I needed to go check my private parts in a dark room to make sure they hadn't turned into night lights!

The fix was simple...put a new boot on the coil tower wire and no more problem.

Maybe your problem is as simple. Hopefully it is. Let us know what you find out.

[QUOTE=Gunslinger]A similar thing happened to my '69 about two years ago. It turned over fine, it had fuel but no fire.

It turned out to be a pinhole in the coil wire boot and it was grounding out against the distributor shroud. The way I found out was painful...I had taken the lid of the shroud off and the car would start. I put my hand near...not touched, the coil wire, and I got a shock like you wouldn't believe. Pertronix named that Flamethrower coil right! I felt like I needed to go check my private parts in a dark room to make sure they hadn't turned into night lights!

The fix was simple...put a new boot on the coil tower wire and no more problem.

Maybe your problem is as simple. Hopefully it is. Let us know what you find out.[/QUOTE]

You may have a bad connection from the ign. switch to the ign. set-up. I guess you don't have any of the paperwork for it, either, eh? (If you know the name of the manufacturer, you should be able to get a diagram from them.)

You may have seen the plug fire, but, how "hot" was it? A weak coil will fire a plug in the open, but not in the cylinder under pressure. The spark with the plug out should be nice and blue-ish. You may simply have a dead/weak coil.

If all you did was back it out, and then try to start it again, there is not likely a problem with the wiring being wrong...it WAS starting before.

Even with a fairly fresh engine, the possibility of a jumped timing chain is still there. If you have GOOD spark, and fuel, I would suggest checking the compression next. Ya never know...

THE CAR WAS RUNNING GREAT BEFORE. ORDERED THE HEI CONVERSION YESTERDAY. THIS WEEKEND I WILL DIG UP A SET OF WIRES AND RUN THEM TO SEE IF IT HELPS. I WILL GET IT RUNNING BEFORE I CHANGE TO THE HEI. I WOULD HATE TO CHANGE TO HEI AND STILL HAVE THE PROBLEM.