need help.. no spark

[73 challenger 440]

ok, today went in the new distributer.. it has a red wire and black wire (pertronix) I connect the black wire to black and grey to red.. when I was making sure the piston was at tdc I took the coil wire off.. but I noticed when cranking the engine over there was arcing form one of the terminals to the center coil socket. my guess is. that was because I removed the wire from the coil not the distributer.. but anyhow.. I now have no spark.. I checked for power going to the coil, I have it.. but still no spark.. I have a msd box.. I even unplugged the msd, and ran just the coil to see if the msd wasn't working and still no spark.... this coil is a year old, and it sparked before removal of the distrib but not now... is there any other way I can be certain it's the coil before I buy a new one..
the only thing I can think of is that I shorted the coil, if thats possible..

[Bullitt-]

probably not your coil but here's how to check it

[73 challenger 440]

thanks....
should I have 12 volts going to the positve side of the coil??? my reading is 3.8 volts...
going to check the ohms in the morning.... after a hour or so playing with it, I am getting a very small orange spark, sometimes not a spark at all..

[Bullitt-]

Not sure how the MSD box is but if it uses a ballast resistor you should have at least 12V on the incoming side & some less outgoing.

Here is MSDs troubleshooting page
http://www.msdignition.com/1troub1.htm

[Chryco Psycho]

Voltage is too low , probably a bad ballast
 where di you connect the pertronics to ? The black wire goes to Neg coil & the red goes to 12v Not the + side of the coil

[73 challenger 440]

I did a volts check with the coil disconnected.. the pos coil wire gets 11.4 the ballast resistor gets 11.4 below that connector was 11.1, and the reading were the same for the other side... when I attached the neg side of the coil and then the pos I got 4.2 volts and dropping.. the pos sparked as it was being grounded, not sure if it would spark when attaching.. I attached a picture of how I wired my distributer to the original 2 prong wire... I know it's to long and a bit messy, but this is only because I want to besure that everything is working properly before making final cut lenghts and taping.. I have an ohm meter but I dont realy know how to use it, not sure where to put the leads on this and where to set the dial at to test coil.. would someone here know..

[422STROKER]

What are you using for a distributor?  Stock with Pertronix added?  Or a new Pertronix unit maybe?

You have what looks like stock dist wiring but say MSD, and Pertronix and a ballast resistor?  Something seems out of place.

Just trying to help a bit. 

MSD is wired 100% seperate from Stock Dist wiring and no ballast resistor is needed since the power for the coil comes from the MSD box.  Also the Trigger from the MSD is 100% seperate from the stock wiring as well with it's own leads from the MSD box.

Tom

[Bullitt-]

meter

[73 challenger 440]

What are you using for a distributor?  Stock with Pertronix added?  Or a new Pertronix unit maybe?

You have what looks like stock dist wiring but say MSD, and Pertronix and a ballast resistor?  Something seems out of place.

Just trying to help a bit. 

MSD is wired 100% seperate from Stock Dist wiring and no ballast resistor is needed since the power for the coil comes from the MSD box.  Also the Trigger from the MSD is 100% seperate from the stock wiring as well with it's own leads from the MSD box.

Tom

so frustrated...
I'ts a complete pertronix distributer.. last year I installed the msd..  am I suppose to do away with the ballist resistor and orange box and run strictly off the msd??? I'll have to unwrap all the wires to see whats what, and post a pic of the mess.. I have a scan of the msd directions, I know I didn't do it like this, why I dont remember.. there are 2 wires going to the neg side of the coil... oh man, this is a mess.... I read on the instruction to use a ballist with the pertronix but when I looked up this info on there web site it says the opposite..

[73 challenger 440]

ok, here is another direction sheet I scanned, why are they different??? this is how mine is now except I still have other wire connected to the coil.. oh man, I think I did this all wrong, but why would it start and idle, if I am using the module and ballist? when in this scan it says to disconnect the module? I have a bout 4-5 inches a water in my garage from all this rain..

[Bullitt-]

top ones are for hall effect distributor pickup...you leave the original box connected, the bottom for the magnetic pickup like the original distributor had (don't know what petronics uses) you disconnect distributor from the original box.

[Bullitt-]

from what I can tell all the Petronics distributors are "plug & play" Hall effect,  not needing an outside ignition box.........do the instructions with the distributor give instructions how to use with one?


http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?N=700+400428+4294925143+4294908110+4294925074+115+4294881256




doesn't look like it......wire around all the old stuff & you should be good
http://www.pertronix.com/support/manuals/pdf/billet.pdf

[73 challenger 440]

from what I can tell all the Petronics distributors are "plug & play" Hall effect,  not needing an outside ignition box.........do the instructions with the distributor give instructions how to use with one?


http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?N=700+400428+4294925143+4294908110+4294925074+115+4294881256




doesn't look like it......wire around all the old stuff & you should be good
http://www.pertronix.com/support/manuals/pdf/billet.pdf

yes that the one I have, pertronix D143700... this is the instruction sheet that was included....   sorry for asking so many questions, litle slow with electrical stuff.. but do I run just of the msd and not ballast and orange box?? (module on fender)

[SalTy71CuDa]

  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say yes go straight off the MSD box and bypass the old stuff. from what the destructions say, they look just about the same from my HI-6 box from CraneCams, and thats what I did. Have'nt had any problems except a few jolts from cheap Accel 8.8 wires..   
 Only thing I used a ballast after that was for the ignition switch, that took a little time to figure out since the former owner turned everything into a rat's nest.

[Bullitt-]

Based on the instructions the way I read them use nothing, no box, no ballast resistor...all you would need is a coil & a 12V ignition circuit..... this is the beauty of the plug & play distributor just two wires to connect.

I wish someone with real experience with these products would chime in here.