Help! first time I had to tow her home

[crause]

The 75 had been sitting for about 2 or 3 weeks without being run so my wife and I decided to take her out and get supper. Started it up to drive home after a good meal and drove about 1/2 mile then the engine just stopped running. No sputter or bucking or anything just dead. I was able to roll into a parking lot and out of traffic. Got out and looked under the hood (no flashlight of course) nothing was leaking out from the bottom. No tools, dressed for dinner, next step, call a tow truck. The next day I was able to take a look and the carb. is getting gas so that rules out fuel problem. I checked the positive wire leading into the dist. cap and with the key on, i was getting power. I disconnected one of the plug wires at the cap and was getting no spark from the cap. This is the original distributor with newer tuneup parts but all internal and electrical components are original. I was going to start changing parts in the dist. but after pricing some of the parts, I decided to just replace the whole dist.. I found one at Ecklers for around $100 that has everything new including a new coil. It is on order, I hope I didn't waist the money since I am not sure it is the dist. but I figured it was time to upgrade anyway. Any advise or suggestions would be great.

 

[TimAT]

You probably have this fixed by now, but HEI Dizzys have 2 weak spots.

1. The rotor. The most common failure is the coil zaps the spark right thru the rotor to the shaft- no spark at the plug wires.

2 The pickup coil. 2 little wires (green and white) from the pickup coil to the module. After years of flexing with every move the vacuum advance makes, they break.

Other than that, the coil and the modules have been known to die too.

 

[crause]

Back on the road

It was the distriutor! Changed it out with the new one and started right up. I couldn't find my timing light so had to order one online and should be in tomorrow. Will set the final timing and put this one to rest. I guess I will never know which part of the old one went bad but who cares, all is good now. I think my next upgrade will be a new carb. and intake. Thanks for the imput.