Car died while driving...help!

[Super Blue 72]

Check out this great article from Mopar Action about roadside troubleshooting your car!!!

http://www.moparaction.com/Tech/archive/roadside.html

Go to the "Cranks but no start" section.

I used this article when my car was dead and learned a lot.  Turned out I had a bad ECU, which I got at a local parts store for like $20.  (Don't let them tell you that they don't have any parts for a car that old.  That's what the guy said and didn't even want to look up the part!)  Also, make sure the mounting bolts have a good connection to the firewall as that's where it grounds.  I don't know if this is your issue but check out the article above. 

[jeryst]

Did you have the plug grounded correctly?

You can buy a little gadget for about $5 that fits right into a plug wire or coil wire. It has an adjustable gap, and an alligator clip that allows you to attach it to a ground. Just crank your starter and you can definitely see if you have spark or not. It gets my vote for the best little inexpensive gadget there is. I got mine at Pepboys, but other auto parts stores should have them. Be careful because some are only good for high energy type systems. The one I got works with lawnmower motors right up through high energy systems.

If anyone is interested, I can post a picture and provide the brand name.

[Belltone85]

Wow Super Blue, that is a great article, especially for somebody like me who is just learning this stuff as i go along. thanks!!

[Belltone85]

There is spark getting to the distributor i pulled off the wire from the coil to the distributor and cranked the engine over and i did see spark there. what is the best approach to take from here?

[Super Blue 72]

It may be hard to tell during the daytime but was it a weak orange spark or a nice blue spark.  You want a nice blue spark.

If you have spark getting to the coil through the coil wire, the only things left are cap, rotor, wires, and plugs, barring anything out of the ordinary, such as a bad distributor, etc.... 

Make sure the contact on the cap and on the rotor are in good shape and are contacting.  Look for "arch lines" in the cap or on the rotor.  A bad rotor can ground out through the distributor shaft and stop the spark from going through the plug wires.

[Belltone85]

Actually it was an orange spark.

[Grancoupe]

Is the rotor spinning when you crank the car? If so try replacing the cap and rotor. Keep the wires in the correct order when doing the swap.

[Belltone85]

Well i got it running today. Don't really know what i did but it started on the first try this afternoon. I charged the battery for a few hours and tightened up what i thought to be a possible loose connection on the positive terminal of the coil and turned the key and it fired up on the first go. so i'm not really convinced that it was that connection but it runs now and i guess thats all that matters.

[VPOINTCUDA]

A little late again, but thats the way it goes !  Anyways , check the ballast resistor . I had one go on me a long time ago, did the same thing. Even started a few days later. then it died again in the middle of rt. 95 in traffic. I had it towed home ( $50.oo) and I asked the wrecker driver what he thought, he told me to change the ballast resistor and I never had another problem with it. Hope this helps.

[Super Blue 72]

In light of what VPOINTCUDA said, might be a good idea to keep a ballast resistor and an ECU in the console with a couple of wrenches as cheap insurance....   

Glad you got it running!!!