no spark at distributor

Help! I have a 55 chevy truck with a 350 engine. There's no spark at the distributor when I tried to start the engine. I changed everything like the spark plugs, plug wires, rotor, distributor cap and ignition coil, condensor and module and still no spark. I ran a wire from the ignition coil strait to the battery and it starts right up. Could it be the ignition switch or what?

Help! I have a 55 chevy truck with a 350 engine. There's no spark at the distributor when I tried to start the engine. I changed everything like the spark plugs, plug wires, rotor, distributor cap and ignition coil, condensor and module and still no spark. I ran a wire from the ignition coil strait to the battery and it starts right up. Could it be the ignition switch or what?

It's easy to check. There has to be 12v on the wire coming from the ign switch at the dist or coil in the run & start position.

It's easy to check. There has to be 12v on the wire coming from the ign switch at the dist or coil in the run & start position. The distributor is an HEI distributor btw.

The original wiring used on your '55 has a section of resistance wire from the switch to the coil primary. You need to replace that with a section of AWG 12 copper. I've been there a couple of times:

http://72.19.213.157/files/57BelAirTPI.jpg



You might want to save the old piece of resistance wire and mark it as such. These are getting extremely rare and difficult to find, and you might be able to hand it off to a restorer some day.