Firing Question
 

I have a new HEI distributor, new plugs & wires. Gas is getting to the carburetor. I'm not getting any spark. Whats the next step to figure out whats going on?

What year is the car?
How do you have it wired?
Is there power to the distributor?
Where did you put #1 when you dropped it in?
Are you sure it was at TDC on the compression stroke?
What is the firing order?
What direction is the firing order?

Its a 1972, #1 was TDC. The firing order is 1,8,4,3,6,5,7,2 counter clockwise. After reading my Chilton's manual I think I may have figured out what the problem was. I didn't connect the other tachometer lead to a ground. does this sound about right?

Make sure you have 12 volts to the dist, points style originally had a ballast resistor either in line, or had a ballast wire that cut voltage to around 9 volts I think.

Thank you. I forgot to mention, this is my first project and I'm learning as I go, so any additional help would greatly be appreciated.

If you are trying to use the wire that went to the stock coil for power for the HEI it won't work. As stated it is a resistor wire to drop the voltage to extend the life of the points. You'll need to run a wire to the fuse panel to the ACCY port to get power for the HEI so it's a full 12 volts.

How do I do I go about running this wire?

I've made some progress. I've ran my wire to the Relay port as I wasn't getting power to the ACcY port nor the ign terminal. Now, I'm getting backfire, but no spark to the #1 spark plug. Its wanting to start, but just seems like not enough spark. What shall i try next?