so here is the story, im driving and the whole car dies on me. im doin about 75 instently i notice the temp gauge sky rocket. so i take it out of gear (yeah is manuel). i coast down the road till i stop. ne way i try to crank it about 3 times. i get out check the plug connections to see if a wire might have wiggled loose, not that. so i had it towed in. next day i buy a brand new dizzy (200 bucks by the way, the old one was in bad shape), and install it wont fire up. checked the fuel lines and im pretty sure that its gettin air. never messed with ne of the needles. so i need help. the motor just spins over and wont fire. it just sounds like its not gettin juice to the dizzy. we check it and the test light also agreed. so ne help would be great. thanks

 

So you automatically assumed it was the distributor, replaced it, and you're right back where you started...wow, I've never heard of that one before. What was your expert diagnosis, "the old one was in bad shape"?

Before you start messing with the ignition system you should probably look into why your engine temp. jumped up so high. I know you shifted into neutral, but did you shut the car off immediately? Shifting out of gear isn't necessarily going to cool off the motor. How high did the gauge read and how long did you leave the engine running?

 

well the gauge read just above middle. but the gauge never gets to the middle while im driving the car. once i took it out of gear the temp stayed where it was, just above middle. thanks

 

Well, if that's the case, the temp. gauge didn't exactly "sky rocket". Once you stopped, I take it the car had already shut off on it's own? If this is the case, and you have tested for spark and found none as I think you're saying, then pop off the distributor cap and watch the rotor while someone cranks the engine to see if it spins or not. If it doesn't, you've got some big problems. If it does, then you have some more investigating to do.

 

check for cracks in the radiator...mine did the same thing (except for the problem starting). the temp was just above middle and stayed there..i didnt think too much of it at the time so i drove a little more throughout the evening...i had a crack in the radiator which ended up getting bigger and the temp kept rising. to make a long story short i blew my radiator and i have a new one on the way which should be here within a few days.

 

"the test light also agreed" - so that means that you got spark to each plug, right ??

my guess would be that you timing belt slipped (assuming that you do not have a fuel problem).

 

hey guys thanks for the help it was the timing belt. sorry to sound so novice, i should have checked that first. thanks for the tips.