68 firebird 400 No spark.... looking for distributor options.
10-31-2010, 11:36 AM
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68 firebird 400 No spark.... looking for distributor options. So my dads car is a 68 firebird 400 convertible. Nice car turns heads everywhere 
... anyways it lost the spark and i figured now would be a good time to get rid of that old distributor for a HEI one... Ill be honest.. i have never owned a car with a points distributor and therefore have never worked on one... dont know **** about them.
What would be involved in switching this old point distributor to an HEI unit? I have read of some cases where the HEI doesnt fit against the firewall and some do... i was looking at the summit brand distributor.
Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated! Would like to get his car running again soon
... anyways it lost the spark and i figured now would be a good time to get rid of that old distributor for a HEI one... Ill be honest.. i have never owned a car with a points distributor and therefore have never worked on one... dont know **** about them. What would be involved in switching this old point distributor to an HEI unit? I have read of some cases where the HEI doesnt fit against the firewall and some do... i was looking at the summit brand distributor.
Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated! Would like to get his car running again soon
11-01-2010, 08:15 PM
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+1 on the Pertronix upgrade.
Assuming you actually have no spark at the plug then most likely your condenser is shot or one of the wires to the coil is grounded. If you go with an HEI unit you will have to do some wiring to get a full 12 volts to the coil, the original supply to the points coil is less than 12 volts and an HEI requires a full 12 volts.
If you decide to stay with the points unit I'd strongly suggest pulling it and checking for play in the shaft. Very common on a unit with 50K miles or more. Most likely it is time to rebuild or replace the distributor. Easiest fix is to buy a Pertronix replacement distributor and coil and just swap the whole thing at once with known good parts. Not too pricy and well worth the effort!
Assuming you actually have no spark at the plug then most likely your condenser is shot or one of the wires to the coil is grounded. If you go with an HEI unit you will have to do some wiring to get a full 12 volts to the coil, the original supply to the points coil is less than 12 volts and an HEI requires a full 12 volts.
If you decide to stay with the points unit I'd strongly suggest pulling it and checking for play in the shaft. Very common on a unit with 50K miles or more. Most likely it is time to rebuild or replace the distributor. Easiest fix is to buy a Pertronix replacement distributor and coil and just swap the whole thing at once with known good parts. Not too pricy and well worth the effort!
