When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
The only thing I can figure is that this ignition has an open short or short to ground in the secondary side.It has been established that the module is signaling the coil.What needs to be looked at is what the coil is sending out to the cap.Somewhere there is a huge open circuit or short to ground killing that voltage.That is why I suggested that he check the resistance of the coil wire and check it again with it attached to the cap measuring from the inside contact of the cap.What do you think Montana?
Run a simple test to see if the coil is firing voltage to the distributor cap.Take your timing light and put the inductive clamp on the coil to distibutor cap lead.make the connections to the battery with the timing light.Make sure you have all your connections back together,turn the engine over with the starter and press the timing light button.The timing light should flash off and on.Let us know what you find.
FMC400 I did the test that you suggested and the test light DID flicker when I was cranking the engine over....
The light must blink, at full brightness, ON - OFF, like turning a light switch ON-OFF.
If it has a slight steady glow and then a little bit brighter flicker, it is not a "good" test. Just hook up the test light to the battery NEG and tap the POS at a rapid rate, this is what you are looking for with this test.
My gut feeling is that the duraspark module is bad and the you are not getting a clean ON-OFF switching of the coil primary circuit. You could be having a steady current leakage thur the power transistor in the duraspark module. Do the blinking light test on the coil NEG (tach test) again to be sure you are getting a clean ON - OFF signal from the duraspark module.
With the key ON both sides of the coil will have 12 volts with the engine not running, check for this. If the voltage is a lot lower that battery voltage, the duraspark module is allowing current flow when it should be an open circuit (ie bad DS2 module). Check voltage readings with the volt meter NEG lead connected to battery post negative.
I also think everyone should have a spare duraspark module under the seat.
I performed another "flicker" test and found that I was not getting full power out of the tach side. With the key on I had 12 volts on the ign side but only 1v on the tach side. I robbed a module from one of my parts pickups, hooked it up and it fired on the first revolution. Thanks for all the help everyone.