testing electronic distributor

[Ae92typeX]

ok, not toyota, but thats not important...
Ive got a modified nissan electronic distributor in my mini im building up. It came from the wreckers so Im not 100% sure its all good.
Went to fire up the engine today and theres no spark. The coil is fine.
Distributor has two wires, which on the nissan were on the + and - on the coil, ive done this.
I noticed when I removed the distributor when the ignition was on it sparked accross to the block, this suggests its shorting internally.
anyway, anyone got a good link for testing these, or any suggestions.
Got the engine fired up, but running on the crappy old points dizzy, I dont want to keep this!

[dazzag]

go to nissan or the library and try getting a electrical wiring diagram for the engine that the disi came from. it will help lots with tracking the current/voltage to the disi

[Ae92typeX]

Yea, I will do that cheers.
I know it's wired up correctly however.

[matt dunn]

The sparking is not because it's shorted,
it's because that's the earth to run the electronics in the dist.

You will need to use a coil that has the right resistanc to match the distributor, and are you using a ballast resistor?

matt

[Ae92typeX]

The distributor has a seperate earth going to the body of it also...which is grounding fine!?
I got the dist and coil together(both from same nissan), its a non ballast type.