so i finally have power to the starter and almost everywhere but it still wouldnt start so i pulled the spark plug and held it to the crankcase while my dad turned it over and i got no spark. where do i go from here? what should i text next?

Bad Coil?

Plugs loose on the dizzy cap or coil?

Bad Condenser?

Bad wires?

J

so i checked to see if i was getting a spark from the bgf fat black wire from middle of coil and no spark there either. what could it be since i've ruled everything on the disributor? where does the power come from to the coil? any ideas?

There is a wire from the condenser (green) on the dizzy that goes on the neg side (toward cockpit) on a normally located coil, and a wire from the harness (black/red?) that goes on the positive side (rear) of the coil. That is if the coil is mounted horizontally across on the passenger side of the motor and is not spun around.

If they are not in place, nothing runs, hence no spark at the coil wire. But ANYONE here way smarter than me can verify it.

Maybe the condenser is bad. Maybe the coil is shot. Coils die when you turn the ignition on and the car is not running. Burns them up, especially if they are old and original equipment, which would make them almost 40 years old.

I have never seen a condenser go bad in 35 years and six 914's. Not many have.

Coils die a lot more easily, I am told. Check on Jeff Bowlsby's site pages (or was it Pelican tech pages?) for the wiring diagram in color. I don't have it handy.

Bosch Blue coils are around for 30 to 40 bucks from the right seller.

Good luck!

J

Do you have power to the + terminal of the coil? You should have 12V there. If you don't have a volt-ohm-meter (VOM), buy one, you'll need it with your 914.

If you have 12V to the coil, check the points by doing this test:

1) The other connection on the coil should have 2 wires; one goes to the tach and the other goes to the dizzy. Disconnect the wire to the dizzy.

2) With ignition OFF, check resistance of the wire to the dizzy to ground.

3) Put car in 5th gear and bump it forward. As the engine turns the points should open and close. With your VOM on resistance, you should measure zero ohms followed by infinite ohms followed by zero ohms and so on as the points open and close.

This is of course assuming that you have points in the dizzy and not some type of electronic points replacement.