My son has been driving his 78 88 Royale daily for about 3 years with basically no engine issues whatsoever.

Last night coming home, it just quit. It was abrupt, it just shut off.

I double checked fuel delivery and that was fine (even though I didn't really expect that to be it...that probably would have been a sputtering affair, not just a quick shut off).

I have had several cars over the years with the HEI ignition, but I have never replaced anything but cap andd rotor on any of them. All have been stone reliable. I am suspecting the module, but wonder how you test one to see if it is faulty.

Any other ideas of what to check would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

I've only had a module fail once on an old TA I bought.I don't know how to test them,I had a spare. Even then the motor sputtered but kept running.I would check for spark as well.Make sure your power connection is good at the cap too.

 

Modules can be tested by autozone....they have a tester and will test it for free.....make sure pink wire to distributer cap has 12 volts with key on. The pickup coil can fail and also the cap mounted coil. Often the wires on the pickup coil break because they move with the advancing of the timing with the vacuum advance mechanism....make sure the little gray and green wires (i think) have not broken or cracked. Your problem could also be a broken timing chain but if rotor turns when cranking your ok.

 

Fixed!

Module was bad per Advance Auto test. Wire on pick up broke removing from module so it was obviously about done too.

New module, pick up and rotor. Running better than ever!