Would this truck still have ballast resistor? If so where would it be? I'm used to seeing them on the firewall behind the dist but I can't find it on this truck.

 

Just caught up with the mouse story and reminded me of a funny story with my old GTX. The guy I bought it from lived out on a ranch and I would find these mystery dog food pellets from time to time. When I finally gutted the interior I found stash of dog food under the back seat and in the heater box was a nest. Straw, torn up debris, dog food, mouse feces and lots of matted hair in the heater core. Nasty mess but you got to find a way to keep them out. They'll go back to the same place following the greasy path they leave behind like a scent trail.

Assuming you still live at the place that the mice got in, moth ***** have worked for me in the past. Of course, you could always keep a cat inside but I don't know how you could shove it into the heater box. Mmmm... fresh kitty has always smelled good to me.

 

I don't live where the truck was parked but the mouse thing has crossed my mind. I wonder if they might have chewed though some of the wires and caused the spark issue?

 

if you have a computer in the fender behind the battery then you will not have a ballast resister. you could try running +12v straight to the +side of the coil and see if it will start.

 

Thanks wolfie I'll give that a shot. It has 12v at the coil with the ign on so I'm going to try another coil too in case both the ones I have are bad (they both look to be older). I intended on doing a full tuneup on it anyway since it has been sitting (I just hoped I could get it going first ). I'm half tempted to bypass the factory coil wiring permanently, but I'm not sure what issues I could cause by doing that.

 

i don't think changing ignition systems would be too hard it looks simple
http://www.allpar.com/fix/electronic-ignition.html

 

Thank you wolfie that looks like a great setup. That GM HEI conversion looks a little odd, but I can lose that resistor so...... I will have to bookmark that and look into it a little more.

 

i was not thinking about that gm HEI. i was just thinking about installing the system with a ballast resister but i just looked up the basic parts you would need on rock auto and some of them are fairly expensive for what they are.
ballast resister $1.74, ignition control module $24.03, Ignition Control Module Connector $47.30=$74.13+shipping. if you wanted to replace your distributor with the vacuum advance one that would cost about another $75. all these prices came from rock auto so you might be able to get stuff cheaper at local parts stores.

 

Well crap. It looks like it may be cheaper to track down what's wrong with mine. My cousin has a good 440 coil that I was going to try on it so I guess I'll see what happens with that first.

 

The 440 coil still did nothing. I'm wondering if the PO only changed the cap and rotor and considered it the dist. or possibly installed a used one that was also bad. The reason I think that is the base of the dist. doesn't look too new (pitted and dirty). Supposedly the truck hasn't been driven since it was changed, so it should still look new, shouldn't it? Would this truck have the Hall effect or pickup type distributor? I know they started with the Hall effect in 88 with the TBI, but since the comp is in the fender instead of on the air filter I wonder...