I have a 351 Cleveland, I was bombing around in the bush one day, i just came out of a puddle and turned a corner about 100 yards away and my truck died. I couldn't get it started so I walked home and left her up there. I came up the next day with some tools, took the dizzy cap off cleaned it out , made sure everything was dry, etc. Tried turning it over, it didn't even make a fart. So I pulled a plug , turned it over and no spark. I have an old single points distributor. I had problems with my coil before, it would start but wouldn't keep the engine running after the starter was disengaged so I bypassed the coil wire and hooked it straight up to my battery so it would maintain the same voltage all the time. SO when it died I figured the coil was faulty , either a short inside the primary or secondary windings. I tested it and the primary reads 2-3 ohms and the secondary reads about 5000 ohms. SO it's not the coil, what else could it be? a ground on the distributor, a bad connection somewhere? The ignition switch is brand new not even a year ago. I'm really stumped and desperate to get my baby on the road.

 

 

I assume you checked the points and they are opening up all right and you can open them up with a screwdriver and see or hear a spark. To me it seems it has to be the points or the coil. Also just out of curiosity does your battery get drained by leaving a hot wire connected to your coil? Technically if I understand you correctly your truck is hot wired. If you always leave it like that it seems it would wear out your ignition parts twice as fast. Keep in mind going through the puddle may not be your problem it could have just been a coincidence.

 

I hot wired my coil to the "I" side of my solenoid. I started my truck with the key and everything and it ran fine. I don't know what else it could be, esxcept for my coil or my distributor

 

Check distributor with cap off to see if it is turning. If it is not turning you probably have a distributor problem (ie broken gear, broken pin). If it is turning I would suspect the timing chain. If both are good I would check all electrical.

 

I haven't been able to check if the distributor turns yet or not. I just finished rebuilding my tranny and putting my engine back in my truck and haven't hooked up all the electrical yet so that'll be the first thing I do today, turn it over check if the rotor turns and get some oil pressure.