The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop HEI died

I have a Langdon built S-10 HEI on the 235 in my 46 1/2 ton since 2022, the package included square coil, wires, 10 ga feed, etc
This is the first hiccup I have had with the system.
Driving home engine made a single pop and died on the spot, fortunately I just finished crossing the Richmond San Rafael Bridge and had exited the freeway in San Rafael and was 6 blocks from Hanks garage. (If it had died on that bridge I might have made the news for all the wrong reasons).
AAA came with fuel but that was no help (I trust my gauge, I could see fuel mist in the carb, but we tried fuel, why not?), so he lifted the front and dropped me off in front of my garage.
Into the garage Hank went pulled by the starter.

So, quick t-shoot said no spark, 1st thought was the D1959 module in the distributor, it is a factory ACDelco unit I had replaced to fix a stumble when I installed the distributor 2 years ago.
So off came the cap and I noticed a dirt strip inside the cap, (hmmm?).
Since I had a new ACDelco D1959 saved on the shelf… in that went… no change/ no start. So I pulled the rotor and saw more dirt under the plate atop the shaft (hmmm?). See pix…..
Set flywheel to TDC on cyl 1, Out came the distributor, in went the old point dizzy and coil, the truck started and ran fine….(just to confirm diagnosis)
In the vice went the S-10 dizzy, removed the gear off the bottom, pulled the shaft, the pickup was significantly dirty and visibly toast.
Since my S-10 distributor is a ‘non Calif” version it took a week to get the part shipped in at my local NAPA (advance tab is different for Calif version).
It arrived today, I installed it along with the (now used) 2 yr old D1959, truck fired, set the timing, and she’s running fine as ever.