Big block chevy instantly shut off on me

[g356gear]

Hi guys,
Was coming home today from a car show, driving down the street, when the car shut off instantly and coasted to a stop. I tried to re-fire the car and it touched a couple times and then nothing so I got it flat decked home. It looks like I have no spark when I pull a spark plug lead at the distributor. The car is still on stock coil and points. Any ideas on where to start? Thanks for the input.

[oleyeller]

Broken Rotor / distributor cap? Fuel pump?

[g356gear]

Broken Rotor / distributor cap? Fuel pump?

Thanks for the ideas. I thought maybe fuel as well, but it is still the stock mechanical pump, and it didn't stutter like it was starving. It was like a switch shut off the motor instantly.

[Twentyover]

Coil?

Running an HEI on my ZZ4, running along I94, the engine stopped. Coasted to a stop, had fuel pressure (injected motor), refused to start while turning over w/o issue. Rode home on a flatbed, called my brother, he had a similar failure that turned out to be coil. Dropped a new coil on and it fired instantly

[g356gear]

Coil?

Running an HEI on my ZZ4, running along I94, the engine stopped. Coasted to a stop, had fuel pressure (injected motor), refused to start while turning over w/o issue. Rode home on a flatbed, called my brother, he had a similar failure that turned out to be coil. Dropped a new coil on and it fired instantly

Thanks....that’s what I suspect as well. Will pull the cap tonight and make sure the rotor is still turning and there isn’t a distributor/cam/timing set issue. If all looks good, will grab a new coil for it. Should probably switch out to something like a Pertronix while it’s apart.

[rickpaw]

You may want of check the distributor drive gear also (pull the cap and bump the starter to see if the rotor moves).

[g356gear]

So I pulled the coil, and I had upgraded it from stock several years ago to a Pertronix coil. I was told the 0.6 ohm Flamethrower 2 was the model to use with stock points. Apparently I should have been given a 1.5 ohm Flamethrower 1, and this may be the reason the coil failed.

[g356gear]

Dropped in a new coil today, and the car fired first try. Problem solved!