Ignition help SOS

[jfliege]

So I have been replacing the engine in my 87' grand wagoneer with one that bought off another forum member on ifsja. The new engine is from an 88 and should be really straight forward. The engine is in and the starter is cranking the hang up in in the ignition the new to me engine has a HEI Mallory series 85 I think distributor. I cannot get it to spark on the plugs. I ran a fresh wire straight from the starter solenoid and it carries 12v keyed. I am not quite certain what to do with the coil side I have the supply hooked up to the +(battery) side and the -(coil) is the only thing I don't completely understand.

I really need some help here I wanted to do this without going to a mechanic.

Thanks for your ideas.

by the way Mallory's directions suck.

[AwesomeJ10]

do they have a web site that perhaps illustrates the wiring?

ignition wiring always takes a few tries to get it to run (at least for me...)

[tgreese]

By definition, HEI is a single-wire system. All it needs is 12V when the engine is starting and running, and all the rest of the action happens inside the distributor. Not much else to do, before you start testing the components in the distributor.

Have you checked for missing parts? Is there a rotor in the distributor? Have you taken the top of the distributor apart, and made sure all the components are there?

Note that some cars are wired so that the ignition voltage comes from the start terminal on the solenoid rather than the ignition terminal. So you may have voltage to the distributor only when the key is at run and not when it's at start. I suggest you use the original 12V coil lead for your engine to power the HEI.

[jfliege]

I did pull the distributor apart to check the points and that the internals are in good shape. Unless I am missing something it all looks good. Your comment about the starter solenoid is something I hadn't thought about. I will have to check into that. I was starting to think the coil mist have gone bad but this at least gives me some ideas to try.

[tgreese]

I did pull the distributor apart to check the points and that the internals are in good shape. Unless I am missing something it all looks good. Your comment about the starter solenoid is something I hadn't thought about. I will have to check into that. I was starting to think the coil mist have gone bad but this at least gives me some ideas to try.

If it has points, it is not a HEI.

[Stuka]

Yeah, HEI has an ignition module inside of it. No points at all, it uses a magnetic pickup to trigger off of.

[serehill]

it also does not have an external coil. the coil is inside the distributor. You should have to hook up a positive & negative to the distributor cap.


And look like this.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/maa-8548201c