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Help me fix my truck after a day of hell...

H

HumptyDumpty79

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Dec 14, 2007
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Location
Fort Worth, Texas
So once upon a time i promised my mother in law that i would take her wheelin when she finished her kemo(sp) treatments (fighting breast cancer). Today was that day. We(me) load up the 4wheelers and head out to the local trails. We get there and i unload the 4wheelers and unlatch the utility trailer then i hit the trails in my 79 jimmy. I start off with some small mud pits and she walks right thru em. Well, i started to go into a really deep one but got stuck. I was eventually able to back out of it, but as soon as i got out of the mud the truck died and it didnt start back up right away. I let it sit for a while, nothing. After about 15-20min of it not starting i started investigating. Its not getting spark. Ignition is comming on everything else is working, but no spark. To make a long story short, I ended up replacing the coil, module, and the rotor and never got it started back up. The truck died at roughly 2:30pm today and i just got it towed home. After 6 hrs of jacking with it on the trails it never started. So somebody please enlighten me. Its a 79 jimmy with a 350 and factory HEI. Power goes into the coil but no power comes out to the rotor. HELP PLEASE.
 
have you gone through and made sure there is no bad corrosion anywhere? being factory it prolly has some if you havent replaced anything until now. one thing to look for that I have seen several local people overlook is the little button in the middle of the cap that touches the rotor. when they get worn out they no longer contact the rotor when the dizzy is put together and thus no spark. since youve replaced everything else already it might not hurt to grab a new cap. good luck with it.
 
Ya tomorrow imma replace the cap. If that dont work, imma replace the whole dizzy. But i checked the bottom button on the coil that goes to the rotor and it doesnt get current at all.
 
How about the power wire to the dist.? my clip is broken and it falls off and the same thing happens to mine.
 
make sure you are getting a full 12 volts i have seen ignition swithes go out ansd when you are cranking it gets no power but in the on position it has power. try running a hard wire from the battery to the dist. make sure you can un hook it quickly to shut the truck off.
 
Make sure the pickup is plugged into the module, the module is plugged into the cap and the cap has power.
It could also be the pick-up coil in the bottom of the distributor.
Make sure the little carbon button is in place.
Make sure the coil has 12V during crank.
Make sure the block is grounded to the chassis and the module has ground.

To test the VR pick-up you can unplug it and measure the resistance. Then if your meter has a mV AC range, you should measure a voltage from it while the starter cranks the engine.

The parts store can test the module and coil for you. I have seen intermittent ones test "good", but they can still start the engine.
 
the same thing happend to me at hollister hills...i ended up shorting out one of the wires for the starter...it really confused the hell out of me too.the mud conducts power and shorts out the two smaller termnals on your starter at least it did in my case

good luck
 
Well, i just got it running again. Besides the coil, module, and rotor that i replaced on the trails, the only thing left to replace is the cap and dizzy. So i bought both today. Replaced the cap, nothing. Replaced the dizzy, saw spark! Put the wires back on and it fired right up.
 
So the problem was the pick-up coil after all? I mean unless the advance was stuck or the gear was stripped, what else would you have replaced with a new dizzy that you hadn't already replaced?
 
Good question. But i have a new problem. I might have spun a bearring or something. Starts right up and idles fine, but when i put it under load in 2nd or 3rd gear it sounds like it has a horrible rod knock. The more gas i give it the more it sounds like the rod is goin to come out the side of the block. Very furstrating.
 
Sorry to hear that. I was going to guess a broken crankshaft or cam or stripped cam gear. Check compression, Valve timing to crank position. Something broke......... Another thought with the noise, Broken flywheel???????
 
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