Yes i know this a Buick site but Pontiac site is not helping me out. I googled everything and still cant figure it out so going try here since this site has been very good at helping me with my Buicks. I got a problem that i cant figure out yet. I have a 69 Pontiac Grand Prix with the 400 and hei dizzy. Now this weekend i put a new battery in it and before i did this i finally figured out what was drawing down my battery after 2 days. The only thing i changed was pull all the fuses and install new ones. Pulled neutral safety switch checked wires and put it back Rerouted the carb electric choke wire from the ignition 12v wire to the dizzy to my regular 12v wire. Thats it..car will crank and i can smell the gas. It wont fire and i can see the gas in the filter. Im getting spark to the spark plugs and with the key turned the ignition wire is getting power because my test light comes on. Checked all the fuses test light comes on for all the fuses except the one that says ignition and all the fuses read 12 volts on my volt meter when i check them and so does the dizzy 12v wire when i turn the key. Why wont car start and prior to me changing battery it ran great no issues and i just drove the car 4 days ago. Dizzy is not loose neither is the cap. . Could a bad neutral safety switch be the reason for this? The safety switch also lights my test light when i turn key and it also reads 12 volts.
HEIs can go bad with no warning. Pull a wire off a plug, stick a bare spark plug in the connector, ground the plug body (I use jumper cables) and watch for a spark when you (or someone else) cranks it. This way you should not get zapped... This will tell you if the dizzy is putting out a spark.
Im getting spark..i took spark plug off and it grounded and still connected to the wires and has spark. ..Maybe it my ignition module because i read some where when someone had similar issues as me..Im swap a new one in there tomorrow to see what happens.
Basics for engine running are fuel, spark, air and timing. The obvious issue here is spark. But that's not guaranteed. What was draining your battery and how did you fix it?
My amplifiers wasnt shutting off all the way so i put a shutoff switch on it. Even with the remote it was still draining battery...it did the same thing with my 68 rivi
I doubt very much that was your problem. More likely that you had no spark. The HEI can develop an intermittent no spark condition when the magnetic pick up wires fatigue. The wires move and flex with the vacuum advance. Frequently, just moving the wires around is enough to make everything work, until it happens again.
Good point Larry - see page 12 & 13 here: https://www.gmcmi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/HEI-Distributors.pdf Entire article is great but has a lot of info!
