smoking wires

[diaedy]

Yesterday my son came home and went to start his truck when smoke started coming out a/c vent. What happed was that where he put his tack wire through the firewall it shorted out and in the process burnt through the water temp guage wire that is all coiled around the heat wire. So bad it melted the tack and water wire together. Now that he replaced them the truck WILL NOT START. Not even fire. There is 12 volts going in to dist from the purple wire but nothing coming out to plugs. HELP
The truck is 1985 350 with the dist an coil all together.
Thanks. Not to keen on how this dist works.
diaedy

 

[blazerguy 90]

Im going to take a guess and say you probably fried the coil when the wires shorted out.

you might have also blown an inline fuse (can`t think of correct name, fusable link, I think)

 

[JEBSR]

If It Were A Fuse You Wouldn't Have Power To The Coil, I Agree That You Either Killed The Coil Or The Module. I Would Take The Module Out Of The Distributer And Take It To The Nearest Parts Store With A Tester And Have It Tested Since It Is The Most Sensitive Part Of The Two. I Would Also Do An Ohms Test On The Coil To Check It. The Haynes/chilton Manuals Both Tell How To Do The Coil Test.

 

[diaedy]

blazerguy

Not to sound really stupid butis there a quick way to check the ciol?
many thanks

 

[diaedy]

Jebsr

Yes indeed. Think I will do that tonight. i do have an ohm mneter heree at the house an was not sure abot the moduel. Maybe hopefull thinking that it would not be that. thanks

 

[89GMCSuburban]

Auto Zone and Advance auto parts have ignition module testers and they'll do it for free.

 

[diaedy]

thanks

It was the coil . Replaced both at seperate times, both module an then coil, and that did the trick. I really appreciate the help as my knowledge is limited.
diaedy