to make a long story short......... my car is not starting. I had initially narrowed it down to my MSD 6AL, which I replaced and now have spark from the box to the coil, I did the test to get the spark from the coil to the ground like MSD says to make sure the box I bought worked, and it does, but when I pull a spark plug from the head and hook it up and place it on the valve cover and crank the motor, I am not getting any spark. I replaced the cap and rotor about 6 months ago, also a while back I replaced the ignitor because I was having issues with that. Only CEL I have had is 41 (obd2) which from what I looked up has to deal with the primary o2, im not sure if that would prevent the car from starting, I had recently removed my header cause I took my tranny off to do some repairs but I dont know why I would all of a sudden get that CEL, maybe somebody could let me know if thats the case but the main thing is why am I not getting spark from the distributor. Any help is appreciated. I have checked all my wiring and it seems to be good but if anybody has suggestions please let me know. Thanks

 

u should tell someone to hold the plug while u crank... if it shocks them it works.. u just might not be seeing the spark. is your vc painted?

 

its just a stock valve cover. I am very sure that the spark plug is not sparking otherwise my car should be able to start, I wouldnt want to shock a friend with a spark plug anyways.

 

it dont hurt... and tell them to hold it close to a good ground. see if theres enough spark to jump.

 

Almost sounds like no connection between the input to the dist. cap, [from coil] and the rotors center terminal.

Are you using an off-board coil, [MSD Blaster or something]?

What kind of cap, [brand]? 94

 

im using an external MSD blaster 2 coil with the modified cap. The one thing that I have noticed is the contacts on the cap have some build up on them, I dont know if it would be worth it to clean them off, but it doesnt make sense because the car was running before I took the tranny off to do the repairs I that I did, so why it all of a sudden doesnt want to work is what isnt making sense.

 

so I am not getting any CEL's but would a bad igniter not throw a code and not work? I am just stumped here.

 

If you have spark at coil, " I did the test to get the spark from the coil to the ground like MSD says to make sure the box I bought worked, and it does" then the ICM, [igniter] should be good.

As I said, it sounds like a problem, [no connection] between the caps input and the rotor.

Are you using an off-board coil, [MSD Blaster or something]?

What kind of cap, [brand]? 94

 

a little hard to understand what your saying, are you implying that the problem lies within the distributor cap and the rotor?

 

OK, one more time.....
"Are you using an off-board coil, [MSD Blaster or something]"?????????????????????

"What kind of cap, [brand]"???????????????????????????

It is even harder to make myself understood if you will not answer the questions I ask. 94

 

I already did answer the question

 

I've had bad ignitors not throw codes, so that's not a guarantee. I'd replace it with a known good one to eliminate it as an issue.

 

will try today, thank you.

Any other suggestions?

 

OIC, Not sure how I missed that, anyway.....

If as you say, you have spark out of the coil but not at the plugs it would indicate the problem is the cap or rotor.
A buildup on the cap "contacts" is not unusual and should not result in no spark at all at the plugs.

As mentioned, no code is not an indication that the ICM is good, however, spark out of the coil would indicate that the ICM is good.

As for the cap, you said you are using a "the modified cap", do you mean a stock cap that you drill out and install the coil lead terminal or an aftermarket cap with a coil lead input already on it? 94

 

No its the MSD cap, MSD refers to it as a modified cap but it is an MSD cap that you buy when you use an MSD external coil

 

OK, IC, it is probably the same one I use on my 94LS.

Meter for continuity between caps coil lead input and rotor center pin inside cap.
Also meter for continuity between rotors center terminal and it's outside terminal. 94