1971 Chevy Pickup Firing ?

[phree]

I have a 1971 Chevy Pickup straight 6 cylinder.
It is not firing.
I replaced the coil, coil wire, points, and condenser. The points were gapped at 19,000th.
The plug wires, dist. cap and rotor are failry new, with no signs of visible flaws.
The rotor bug turns when turining the key. That makes me assume the timing chain must be turning?
The engine turns over great.
I used a test light on the negative side of the coil and it lit up.

There still is no spark from any spark plug wires.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I should try next?

[MrPbody]

No timing chain in that engine. Just gears.
Have you tried just the coil wire to see if there's spark there? Pull it out of the distributor and put the end near a ground and crank it. If you have no spark, the problem is in the primary wiring or the coil, itself. If you have spark there, and none getting to the plugs, the problem is in the rotor or cap.
When you say you have power at the negative side of the coil, does it "interupt" while cranking? It should. If not, the points could be closed up again, or burned.

[phree]

MrPbody
First thanks for the reply and help!

I have not tested the brand new coil and coil wire for a spark.
I will when the wife gets home.
I have tested the spark from many of the spark plug wires, and no spark.

I tested the coil with the test light by turning on the key and attaching the light to a ground and then touching the negative side of the coil. The light stayed lit up. I will try cranking it once the wife gets home.

So no timing chain in that engine. If the rotor bug turns while cranking, then does that mean the gears are ok?

I'll let you know how it goes.
Once again thanks for the help.

[phree]

Ok,
So I tested the coil and the coil wire for a spark, and I didn't have a spark. I held the coil wire to a ground while cranking the engine. I then reversed the coil wire just to make sure it was getting contact inside the coil, this still didn't give a spark.

I tested the coil with the test light by turning on the key and attaching the light to a ground and then touching the negative side of the coil. The light stayed lit up.

I tocuhed a volt meter to the positive side of the coil and the negative side of the coil with the key on and it read 0 volts.
I then touched the volt meter to the positive side of the coil and the negative side of the volt meter to the negative side of the battery and it read 12 volts. So I believe I'm getting power to the coil but no spark from the coil. I also believe the wire from the key to coil must be good.
So I think the brand new coil I bought is not any good.

Does this sound correct?