Not Getting Spark???

[Pete112]

Hi all,

I apologize if this has been answered already in another post. I usually do an extensive search but I don't have a lot of time at the moment!

I got my new timing belt on and replaced all of the rubber on my '80 with an 1800 engine. Brief recap- it hasn't ran in 10 years and I finally got it to turn over. I want to see if I can get this engine to work before swapping a new one in.

Anyway, now I finally have it all together and officially tried to start it last night. Crank all I want, nothing, not even a sputter. I took one of the wires off and held it close to a ground while cranking. No arch at all.

When I bought the car, it had what looks like a never used electronic ignition installed. The empty box was even in the passenger seat. I think I found the reason the car suddenly sat for 10 years.

I don't remember the brand of electronic ignition (at work now). It has a small black box, almost like a heat sink, with 2 sets of wires coming from it. One set goes under the cap and the other to the coil. I tested the voltage at the coil and found something really odd. The polarity was reversed. The "+" on the coil proved to be the negative and vice versa.

Any thoughts on some basic tests and troubleshooting would be great! I know on my Mustang I can run the coil directly from the battery to bypass a lot of the electrical. I don't think I can do that here considering the electronic module would also be bypassed and that's the only link to the distributor besides the main coil wire.

I know you'll probably need some more details and some pictures, but I at least wanted to get the ball rolling here.

Thanks!

[Pete112]

BTW, I should mention I did try correcting the polarity and it did not help. I'm not sure if the reversed polarity may have damaged the coil?

[TulsaSpider]

Wish I could help, I guess it didn't come with instructions eh?

[So Cal Mark]

reversing polarity of the coil won't harm it, merely cuts the spark potential in half