Engine in my truck died driving it to work today. Just up and shut off. Cranked, but wouldn't restart. Walked home. came back later with a buddy expecting to find a bad fuel pump. Power and ground at the pump. Fuel from the injectors. No spark at the plugs. Strong spark at the coil, strong spark from the coil wire. Pulled the cap, rotor was spinning. Put on a new cap and rotor, truck fires right up. The cap and rotor I pulled off are maybe 3 years old and they both look good. Accel brand cap and rotor. What's up with that?
CK5
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Distributor cap and or rotor failure?
- Thread starter -stew-
- Start date
answered your own question..
Accel is soooooooo 1980's...
like champion spark plugs, I'd NEVER run that sh*t in my vehicles... those companies, among others, went down the terlit...
There are so few parts on these, if they look good, they are.
Only a few things that can go wrong, all can be seen (wear, broken parts) or felt (loose terminals).
Only a few things that can go wrong, all can be seen (wear, broken parts) or felt (loose terminals).
black dawg
1/2 ton status
rotor burn through to the distributor shaft?
I had a whipped gm hei years ago .
figured time for new dist so I got a new in box accel dist and super coil . drop it in no fire .
pull back out drop in old whipped gm hei and fired off.
took back to store got next new in box of both and same results as first time.
took there crap out and got a msd pro billit dist / coil / box and never had a problem again .
figured time for new dist so I got a new in box accel dist and super coil . drop it in no fire .
pull back out drop in old whipped gm hei and fired off.
took back to store got next new in box of both and same results as first time.
took there crap out and got a msd pro billit dist / coil / box and never had a problem again .
Don't know about dizzys but I've been told that accel coil packs for newer engines are junk by multiple people. So I tend to not trust many things by them
Yeah, they're meh. There's a reason they're cheaper than the other stuff
I had an accel super coil and accel wires many years ago. Had the most frustrating miss, and wierdness. Seeing as all the ignition parts were new I bought a new carb. Ran slightly better. Spent some time tuning the hell out of the carb. It ran slightly better. Found vac advance gummed up, replaced it with new and did some more tuning, again it ran slightly better. Went wheeling and the battery hold down broke and the battery rolled into the alt. Got battery acid on my 6 month old wires. 
I replaced the wires with my old stock wires, because I couldn't afford a new set again right away. Damned if it didn't run a bunch better. On a hunch I removed the accel super coil and replaced with the old used. Presto, damn thing never ran so good.
Accel is beyond junk, and I've never run another Accel product since.
I replaced the wires with my old stock wires, because I couldn't afford a new set again right away. Damned if it didn't run a bunch better. On a hunch I removed the accel super coil and replaced with the old used. Presto, damn thing never ran so good.
Accel is beyond junk, and I've never run another Accel product since.
Only Accel product I ever used was a "super coil" intended for old points style ignition...my '66 Buick ran worse with it!--the thing was TOO powerful--the spark jumped right over the plugs to ground ,rather than fire them,in damp weather,and the plug wires would leak sparks to ground too..
I put the OEM Delco coil back on it without changing anything else,and it ran a lot better..
I have seen Accel spark plugs make engines run lousy right out of the box too--they are almost as bad as Bosch platinum plugs in Chevy engines--almost garanteed to misfire right out of the box..
I put the OEM Delco coil back on it without changing anything else,and it ran a lot better..
I have seen Accel spark plugs make engines run lousy right out of the box too--they are almost as bad as Bosch platinum plugs in Chevy engines--almost garanteed to misfire right out of the box..
4xcrazy
3/4 ton status
Pretty sure that was an Accel super coil that gave me grief for the past several years, ended up being the connector portion we believe on the coil that was losing connections with the main plug to the dizzy.
$25-35 factory priced part, cost me a few years without the truck and several hundred dollars in recovery, trailer rental, fuel costs and whatnot to get it from St. Louis back to NE Fort Wayne,IN. where it sat for almost 3 years.
After several attempts at tracing bad parts, wires, had the engine harness removed 3 times to try to find bad wires, brand new distributor after 3 module replacements, nothing could be found.
Dad finally got around to messing with it, found the jittery plug one day, replaced the wire/connector piece as well as that coil with a factory unit, been running ever since, no stutters, stalls, nothing.
And the more I thought about it after he found the problem, all of the stuttering and the now and then "quick stalls" started happening after that Accell coil was installed.
I didn't want to accept the fact that a fancy, supposedly higher output coil could be the problem.
$25-35 factory priced part, cost me a few years without the truck and several hundred dollars in recovery, trailer rental, fuel costs and whatnot to get it from St. Louis back to NE Fort Wayne,IN. where it sat for almost 3 years.
After several attempts at tracing bad parts, wires, had the engine harness removed 3 times to try to find bad wires, brand new distributor after 3 module replacements, nothing could be found.
Dad finally got around to messing with it, found the jittery plug one day, replaced the wire/connector piece as well as that coil with a factory unit, been running ever since, no stutters, stalls, nothing.
And the more I thought about it after he found the problem, all of the stuttering and the now and then "quick stalls" started happening after that Accell coil was installed.
I didn't want to accept the fact that a fancy, supposedly higher output coil could be the problem.
and just as an aside to this ordeal.. cap's aren't always, if it looks ok, it is...
old school caps tend to be that way, tho I have seen hairline cracked ones wreak "bang your head" havoc...
but newer "flat caps", like this
are notorious for internal x-fire problems... we've seen MANY manny's f*ck up the production of these... bad outta the box issues... we had a stretch for 2 yr's where about 50% of the ones we where getting where bad... and trust me, I install DOZENS a yr...
old school caps tend to be that way, tho I have seen hairline cracked ones wreak "bang your head" havoc...
but newer "flat caps", like this
are notorious for internal x-fire problems... we've seen MANY manny's f*ck up the production of these... bad outta the box issues... we had a stretch for 2 yr's where about 50% of the ones we where getting where bad... and trust me, I install DOZENS a yr...
and the cap / rotor ryoken posted above is notorious for moisture build up in them and heavy corrosion build up .
there for the 93-03 vortec 4.3/5.0/5.7 style engine before the newer vortec. they ran them in vans up to 03 then 04 van got ls engines. also the 4.3 was used even longer than that still in trucks.
there for the 93-03 vortec 4.3/5.0/5.7 style engine before the newer vortec. they ran them in vans up to 03 then 04 van got ls engines. also the 4.3 was used even longer than that still in trucks.
answered your own question..
Accel is soooooooo 1980's...
like champion spark plugs, I'd NEVER run that sh*t in my vehicles... those companies, among others, went down the terlit...
No doubt. I avoid the color yellow completely just because it could have come from the same factory as some Accel part.
But there are several common failure points in an HEI. Check out the carbon button under the coil. If you increase drive current above what a stock module does, it can start melting your cap or rotor. MSD makes a lower resistance one for this reason. I once set up an HEI to drive 7A to the coil and even the low-R button would melt a cap in a week.
I really think old AC Delco modules and coils are the best. MSD stuff is also good, but costs way more.
This stuff is brown/tan. And this isn't an HEI. It's the small cap remote coil set up they used on all the TBI motors. But I do feel better that others have seen this and (fingers crossed) this wont turn into some intermintent failure that fixed itself while I was out buying a cap.
