bullitt01

I put the battery on the charger to top it off. It's at 12.9V now. The starter still won't stay engaged with the flywheel. When cranking the starter is getting full voltage to the motor but only 9.8V to the small wire that goes the the solenoid. Not sure if that's low enough to cause a problem, but I'll try and trace it back and see if I can find any problems along the way. Maybe the solenoid just finally quit and it's just coincidence that it happened in conjunction with my other issues.

Thanks for the input on the coil heating up. I'll try and figure out what's grounding it. If that is the case it seems wired that it ran fine for a couple minutes. When I turn the key the starter motor now it spins but does not move to engage the flywheel. If I hold down the key the starter motor just spins and spins. Battery voltage was 11.8V. That should be enough to properly operate the starter but I'll throw the charger on it and see if topping it off changes anything.

I forgot to put in my last post that last night I realized I had the red wire and ground wire on my HEI module mixed up. I put them in the correct spots and it started and ran for a couple minutes and then just shut off. Also, now when I try and crank the motor the starter motor will no longer engage the flywheel. It just spins but doesn't turn the motor. Could the starter issue be related or just coincidence? Think I fried the HEI or coil by hooking it up wrong?

I had a couple minutes to tinker with the car today. I did test #6 from the post above and got no spark out of the coil. Also, the battery was putting out 12V but the cool had 10.4V at the (+) post and 2.1V at the (-) post. Also, with the ignition on the HEI and coil both got hot. Is that normal?

I did all the checks except #6 that EuroDat suggests. They all checked out ok. I wired the HEI exactly the same as EuroDats diagram in his walkthrough. I work 60 hours a week and have 2 children under the age of 3 so I don't exactly get much time to tinker with the car. Next chance I get I will do check #6 and I will clean all the grounds and see where that gets me.

I did follow EuroDats guide, except the '78 has a 5-pin connector on the TIU instead of that individual wire thing the '77 has. The buzzer worked before. What I was trying to convey is that nothing works now. It's like the ignition isn't even being turned on. The fusible links are brand new. With the key on there is 12V at the positive side of the coil, but no spark when cranking. In case it helps, the car just shut off one day and hasn't started since. I decided it was the TIU via process of elimination, I could be wrong. When I get home tonight I will draw a diagram of exactly what I did.

The TIU on my bone stock'78 280Z bit the dust so I decided to replace it with a GM HEI unit. The one I got was new and from a '83 Buick Regal V6 in case anyone thinks it matters. I took the 5-pin connector off the old TIU circuit board and wired the HEI unit to it so I could just plug it in the wiring harness like the old TIU. I wired the 4 pins and ground on the HEI to the appropriate pins on the old connector and confirmed I had good conductivity through the connector. When I plug it in the car won't start. It cranks but has no spark. The seatbelt buzzer doesn't even come on when you turn the key on. Has anyone installed a HEI unit this way before? I checked that I had things wired to the right spots 100 times. All the HEI installations I've seen have been in the engine bay next to the cool. Will It just not work the way I want to do it? I don't see why it shouldn't. Do I need a HEI unit from a specific car? Sorry for my ignorance. Thanks for the help.