Napoli

Hi guys,
Newbie here and I am experiencing "no spark" issues too.
I have a 1971 Hemi-Cuda Clone car that I shipped from overseas back to the USA.
Whilst on the trip the car had to exchange boats in Italy here they had problems starting the car (dead battery since it was there for a month).
The car did not start and was pushed to the next boat to the USA. At any rate the car finally arrived in Arizona and after a quick review I notices they had removed the Orange ECU unit from the vehicle,
I replaced it with a new "blue" ECU from Jegs and tried to start the car to no avail.... I have about 5v at the coil (which I replaced with a new one) and a new ballast. New plugs and wiring but still no spark.

I have a brand new battery and booster on the car as it turns over well but no spark!

Please let me know if there is something else I need to check,

Regards,
Napoli

Iowan

Hello and welcome to the forum, the first thing I would verify is the voltage on both sides of the ballast resistor on the door with the car running.

Napoli

Hi my voltage at the Ballast in is about 10V. the voltage at the coil is low at about 5v. Its driving me nuts!
Still no spark,

Thanks for your help.

Kuvasz101

Do a quick hot wire. Run a jumper wire from the positive battery terminal to positive on the coil. If it starts you have an ignition hot wire problem. The ignition wire if you get that far plugs in at the solenoid.

Kuvasz101

I would run a jumper wire from the positive side of the battery to positive on the coil. Turn it over. If it starts you have an ignition wire problem. This quick jump isn't going through the ballast, so it's meant for test purposes only. If it starts, we'll guide from there.

Lostviking

The only thing after the ballast is the coil, and the points. If the points aren't closed, you should have the same 10V (which is way too low). If you don't have points, then maybe the ign unit is bad, but also you might have a shorted coil. If points, make sure they are open, then recheck the coil voltage.

Iowan

The reason I mentioned volts before the ballast resistor is that I have had problems with wiring and ignition switches that caused low voltage.

Napoli

Tried that Kuvasz to no luck,

Napoli

thank you Kuvasz, I tried but that did not work,
The ballast that was in the car was an MSD ballast and ran fine before I shipped the car.
Once the car arrived in AZ I noted that the ECM was removed from the car and someone obviously tried to start it while in shipment and did not have much luck.
So I bought a brand new Coil, ECM (two in fact!) and new plugs and wires.
Somewhere between the switch and the coil I must have a short is my guess as the power drops from 12V to 5 volts at the Coil and that is obviously not enough to get the coil to spark. I am trying to trace it all from the Switch to the coil to see if there is something amiss with the wiring etc, All my harnesses are new on the car which makes it even more crazy,

Napoli

Hi LostViking,
By ignition I presume you mean the orange ECU?

Kuvasz101

I see what you're saying but......if you are running a hot wire from the battery (12 volts) to the positive side of the coil you'd have your volts to the coil. By spinning over the starter at the solenoid using a screwdriver to jump hot to starter wire you should be good. If it's still not firing you may have a bad coil (unlikely). It ran with the old orange ECU. Maybe the new Jegs isn't compatible or it's no good.

RacerHog

Check / Test the distributor reluctor....
Not sure how you are checking for spark? But someone didnt remove the Distributor Rotor did they?

this may help

Lostviking

If you disconnect the wire at the coil, does it read 12V or still 5V?