engine won't start (no spark

Hi all,
Short story: ignition on and there's 12 volts at the coil dropping to 9 when I start but the voltage never gets interrupted when the engine
is started (or cranked by hand) so there is no discharge from the coil to the distributor.


Slightly longer story:
The car is an '85 Range Rover with 3.5 V8 running on petrol and lpg.
Around town it runs bad on lpg, bogging during acceleration. On petrol it's better but not as it should.
On the motorway (above 50mph) it runs fine on lpg, no problems keeping up with modern traffic altough I've not been over 75mph.
Checked the usual suspects: strombergs carbs are ok but found a lot of play on the dizzy rotorshaft (airgap is all over the place) and
the vacuumadvance doesn't work.
So I bought a new distributor. Removed the old one, fitted the new one...and the engine wouldn't start.
Contacted the seller and whilst waiting for a replacement module to arrive I refitted the old distributor...and the engine wouldn't start.

So what has changed?
The original distributor is a 35 DM8 which has the coil on top of the amplifier box remotely mounted on the front wing, the new one has the amp.module
on the distributor (later type)
When I took out the old stuff, I also removed some loose wires that didn't (seem to) go anywhere.

This is how it's connected now:

White wire (ign.switch) to positive side of coil
White wire from positive side of coil to amp

Black wire to negative side of coil
White/black wire from neg.side of coil to amp

Red wire from amp to distributor
Blue wire from amp to distributor

Am I missing something here?

Thanks in advance,
Rob

is the wing still earthed to the block?... they like to be earthed properly

Wing is earthed.
To rule out any connection problems (live feed/earth) I also tried a direct feed from the battery + and - to the coil.
Also did an extra earth strap to the distributor casing.
Didn't help.

Cheers,
Rob

Not sure if you still have a no start issue with your vehicle. Where does the black wire go to on the neg. side of the coil. A black wire is usually earth (which should not be connected to the coil. If it's a capacitor, thats ok. It could also be for the Ipack tach signal and thats ok. When you crank the engine monitor the voltage on the coil neg. side it should fluctate. You could also try a test light across the coil and you should see the lamp flash. This would then suggest the amp is working ok.
Do you get any sparks at the spark plugs?.