New Distributor and No Start-Need Help

[Cal2121]

I purchased a new Pertronix distributor for my 1968 360 and am having some trouble getting my truck to run now. The distributor that was on it had 1 wire running from it to the positive terminal on the coil and there were 2 wires (1 running to my carburetor (maybe electric choke?) and 1 running through the firewall I believe to the ignition) to the negative terminal on the coil. We installed the new distributor and hooked its red wire to the positive on the coil and its black wire to the negative terminal on the coil. It will not start and sounds like it is not getting spark. So, as of now, the coil has the following wires running to it: 1 red wire from the distributor to the positive terminal and 3 wires (1 to carb, 1 from distributor, and 1 to ignition) to the negative terminal on the coil. Do I have it wired correctly? Could we have messed up the timing enough so that it wouldn't start?

Thanks for any input.

[Ranchero50]

Coil typically doesn't care about polarity but it's wired backwards on your setup.

Coil + get's the voltage from the dash key switch on a points setup through the resistor wire behind the ashtray on a points setup. Choke should get it's own supply, someone hooked it up incorrectly. I also think the Pertronix want's a full 12vdc when running, not the 7-8 through the resistor wire.

As a short check, wire the Pertronix 12v to the coil +, and just jump that to the battery + and see if it'll get spark or fire. Easiest way is to jump a gap through the high voltage coil wire to ground through a spare spark plug.

Oh yeah, also make sure the rotor is under the cap.

[Cal2121]

Thank you. Got it running. Sure love the truck and this site.

[69timemachine]

Glad to hear you've got it running! I used the Pertronix Ignitor 3 module in my stock distributor and Ignitor 3 coil on my 351C in my '69 F100. I did bypass the resistor wire so that my coil would be getting a full 12 volts.

Another thing to consider, I've always heard never to hook an electric choke wire to the coil, but to another key-on-run 12 volt source. I had swapped the carburetor on my '72 Gran Torino I used to have and hooked the electric choke to the + side of the coil and I couldn't get the car to start til I took the wire back off. Just something to think about.