car just died going down road, no clue why. Has fuel and spark but won't start.

[ehummelman]

Car just shut off going 80 down the highway, had been fine about an hour into a
road trip. No warning, sputtering, nothing. Just turned itself off. I coasted
off to the shoulder and looked under the hood. Everything looked fine. Anyway, I
had to have it towed 65 miles home last night. This morning I went out and tried
to investigate. Battery is good at 12.65 volts. Starter will crank over just
fine, just no fire. Tank has fuel in it, and gives a good squirt at the nozzle
when throttle manually opened. I pulled plug #1 and grounded it then turned it
over. The plug sparks fine. I am absloutely stumped not to mention frustrated. I
need this thing to run now! I've never had it just die like this. Got fuel, got
spark - the only one left is compression. I can't imagine I would somehow lose
compression all of a sudden like that. Anyone offer some help here? I don't know
what else to check.

[sjaroslo]

Any luck with this? What kind of ignition are you running? I know that you have spark but is a distributor? Could it have spun? The other thing that you need is air--no restrictions in the air intake? Provide a few more details about the engine and configuration and maybe someone can help. I know that you're saying that you have spark but are there any interlocks or safety switches that might need to be armed? Is it an electric fuel pump?

[79-TA]

fuel injected or carbureted?

[MrQuick]

MSD with a semi gutted HEI still? You could be getting spark just not at the right time.

[bel_mor]

its a wild one but possibly a sherd dizzy pin? it could in theory have sheared off and got stuck 180 out???

[Ron.in.SoCal]

Could be a timing chain?

[ehummelman]

Thanks guys. It's a new MSD ready to run, 6Al box, and Blaster SS coil. I got rid of the HEI stuff. Engine is carbed, mechanical fuel pump. I've been getting a lot of advice over on performanceyears.com and it seems the consensus over there is that my timing chain has jumped. I'm going to go out after my coffee here and see what I can figure out. If that's the case, I have a lot more work to do. :(

[Tony_SS]

This happened to me and it was the module in the hei... it just went out driving down the road. put a new one in and all was good.

[ehummelman]

Swapped in a known to be good Pro Billet and it changed nothing. Still am getting spark at the plug when I ground it against the block and crank it over, still gets fuel at the squirter, and I've verified that the rotor points to the correct position at TDC compression stroke. The thing just won't fire up. I am at a loss. Anyone have any other ideas I can check?

[sniper]

I suspect a bad coil. You may have spark, but it could be really weak.

verify timing. But even when timing is out, you would still get some sort of dieseling even if it doesn't start.

[fvike]

Try another coil, it could be boiling. A boiling coil will just die out like that. If not, the ignition box could be faulty. My brother had a Mopar orange box that would'nt rev past 4000, but was fine below it.

[sjaroslo]

Updates?

[ehummelman]

Sorry I didn't close this out. It ended up being the coil. Like I said it was giving a spark, but apparently not strong enough of one to light the mixture under pressure. My mistake was assuming a spark was a spark and not swapping out the coil as part of my testing. Live and learn. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.

[sjaroslo]

Awesome. You got some good advice then!

[David Pozzi]

For your tool box, pick up a proper test plug. It has an alligator clip on its side & a large gap to jump.

[ehummelman]

I know, you're absolutely right. I got the same advice on the Pontiac forum I'm on. That was the one test I didn't do that I needed to.
Always learning. :)