So the other day I drove my Duster from my old house to the new one, 25 miles on the freeway with no problems. Started up beautifully at the old place too. Two hours after parking it at the new house, it won't start. Everything's turning, it's getting fuel, air and spark so I'm kind of stumped. I tested each individual component in my ignition (HEI) and it looks like the coil may have crapped out. I have yet to put a new one in, but what are the chances that the pick-up in the distributor may have crapped out? I figure if there's spark, the pick-up is doing its job. My guess was that maybe the coil was just out of spec enough to not be doing its job. Still going to work on it tomorrow afternoon and see what I can figure out, but any thoughts from you guys?

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me

What kind of coil?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Was an MSD Blaster 2. Putting a Mallory Promaster in.

The ballast resistor was also taken out way back when I converted to HEI.

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me

Got too busy with yardwork (I have defeated the dandelions for this season!) the last several days so I haven't tried the new coil yet, but just for argument's sake, is there any reliable way to test the pickup in an electronic distributor? What's the likelihood of one even failing? I saw on Rockauto that they have Neihoff and Standard brand pickups. Either one better than the other as far as reliability?

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me

FINALLY got an opportunity today to convert to the Mallory Promaster coil. Got it installed, and just as before, started on the first crank after one pump of the gas pedal. So since I verified that it's running now, I went ahead and swapped in the better cap and rotor, and the Magnecor wires. I haven't regapped the plugs yet so they're still at 0.035", but I'm not going to bother since my next step is putting in NGK Iridiums gapped to 0.050. Took it for a short cruise, and boy was there a huge difference. On dry pavement (keeping in mind that the only performance stuff on the car is the ignition at this point, and still using a Holley 1920) I was able to chirp the tires easily, which really surprised me. So she's back on the road and running beautifully.

What I can't figure out is what would make a coil work just fine, then two hours after shutdown, crap out?

'tain't purty, McGee.....

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me

Where's your heater fan?

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Heh, the whole assembly is pulled out for restoration.

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me