Drove car home from work Thursday night no problems. Going to work Friday afternoon no start. So far today I checked carb getting gas, pulled plug wire #1 and no spark, pull coil wire from dist. no spark. I have a extra EICM and coil both good plug each one in and NO SPARK. I then check all connections all look good. So where do I go from here?

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my first 6 1973 Plymouth Duster

Ballast resistor, reluctor gap, coil to dist wire, distributor plastic drive gear.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

When a Mopar won't start, the most likely culprit is the ballast resistor. It's also the easiest to test. If you have a two wire ballast resistor, just wire them together and try to start it.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

By passed ballast and still no spark. Shouldn't the coil spark even with out the dist. ?

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my first 6 1973 Plymouth Duster

Not if the pickup in the distributor isn't triggering it. The reluctor in the distributor needs to trigger the field in the coil to collapse and send a spark through the coil to cap wire. If that doesn't happen then the coil just stays energized and no current is sent through the coil to cap wire.

That is why you should check the gap on the pickup in the distributor and check the integrity of the plastic distributor drive gear.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Check to see if your distributor is turning. If not, then the plastic gear has likely given up.

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

Checked this morning and the Dist. turns fine. I will say the gap for the reluctor is really close I mean it's just a hair of touching but watching it spin you can see that it does not.

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my first 6 1973 Plymouth Duster

check to make sure the coil is providing spark.
disconnect the coil wire from the distributor.
if you like, some guys put a spark plug on the end to watch for spark. you could also put a screwdriver in the end of it and make sure it's close to a good ground. what you want is to get it close enough so it'll spark across a gap to ground. valve cover should do it, just kinda rest the wire on top of it.

disconnect the wire from the negative side of the coil. connect a wire to that terminal, then with the key on, when you ground that wire you should see a spark across the gap to the valve cover. basically what you are doing is grounding the coil, which provides spark.

no spark? well, make sure you have power to the coil.

that's where i would start.

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70 Plymouth Valiant 4dr

Coil did have power when checked in way suggested by VBW. but still no spark through wire to dist. cap. I again hooked up other coil and viola spark I guess I did not hook it up right yesterday. I pushed the wire into the cap and varoom she fired up right away. The coil I was using was a MSD blaster SS I got out of the junk yard for $5 it was on a /6 so I thought it would be ok for mine. I'm not going to complain I got over 4 years of use out of it.

The MSD was not the standard round shape and I had it mounted on the fender well. I never liked where the original mounting is for the coil. I am putting a round coil back on any suggestions on placement.

And thanks Reed and ValiantBoyWonder for your help. I'll tell you guys if it wasn't for this forum I might have gotten rid of this car a long time ago then again probably not I need something to tinker with even though sometimes it's aggravating especially when it's my daily driver.

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my first 6 1973 Plymouth Duster

Awesome! Glad to hear it worked out. Throw a new set of plug wires and a coil wire on there just to be safe. Check your cap and rotor too. $30 worth of parts is good for peace of mind.

My valiant is a daily driver too. Whenever i have time i just open the hood and take a look around to see if there's anything developing.

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70 Plymouth Valiant 4dr

I have my coil mounted on the passenger side inner fender well. I use the same clamp that originally mounted it under the alternator. Just drilled two holes and used sheet metal screws. Not only is it easier to service, it should also stay cooler than in the stock location.

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Somehow I ended up owning three 1964 slant six A-bodies. I race one of them.
Escape Velocity Racing