350 HEI Problems - plz help -

[WildsideCreations]

I just bought a beater 79 Caddy Seville for $200. The reason is because it has a 350 with a performer intake edlebrock 650 carb and delco HEI dist. Everything is complete tranny and all. The guy said it ran, but it doesn't. Anyway, I turn it over and it sounds ok, but i have no spark at all on any plugs. Could somebody here plz point my in the right direction on where I can find a diagram of the BASICS of how a HEI system should be wired. I want to use the engine in another project car so a complete re-wire would be what i would like to do. I just would like to hear the puppy bark a couple times before I hank her out and send her to the machine shop. Any help would be great. Thanx guys.

[Jim Adams]

looking down at the dist cap there should be a heavy thick red wire that goes to the dist. on the dist,,it should be marked battery,,next to this is a place where the tach goes and should be marked Tach but the caddy we know doesnt have a Tach so that space is empty the other plugs behind those two go into the distributor so if you want to hear it run ,,take a jumper wire from the hot of the battery and go to the battery side of the distributor,, check your fire order on the plug wires to be sure it is right,,find number 1 cylinder and follow it back to the dist, then it should go 18436572 is the fireing order and it should turn counterclockwise. If all this is correct and it still doesnt run you may have a bad coil or module in the distributor. message me if you need any help

[WildsideCreations]

OK. TYVM for all that info it is exaclty what i was looking for! Heres the update. I bought all new parts, Coil, Module, pickup, rotor, cap. I had to remove the distibutor to intall the pickup. When i did I noticed there is some kind of a magnetic pickup on the shaft that has 3 wires and a plug. This WAS NOT connected to anything. Also, in addition to the pug that goes into the coil on the outside next to the BATT cannector is another set of wires that go to a box on the firewall. From what I can tell it is the ESS for some kind of computer conntrolled advance. Anyway, I have replaced all those parts and when I turn the engine over I still get NO SPARK. AHHHHGG. Very aggravating :|. I checked the BATT lead it has a steady 13v so it seems ok. Only thing I can think is that the Distibutor is completly shot. Any more ideas?? TYIA

[tom3]

I'd hit the local junkyard. That dist. probably is not what you want for that engine anyway. Find a mid 70s HEI with a vacuum advance. Usually about 20 bucks complete if you pull it.

[WildsideCreations]

Thx. i will. I'll post back after i do.