Greetings,

I am busy building up an old Mazda 323 as a project. One of the many things I did was buy a new distributor because the vacuum advance on the original distributor was no longer working and the manual advance was seized up so it seemed like the right thing to do.

[The car on Tiktok:]https://www.tiktok.com/@die_brak]

I bought this distributor from a local spare shop in George last year and finally got to run the car for the first time yesterday. I could not run it till I had the new radiator properly connected and filled with coolant, which took substantially longer than I wanted to.

The engine ran for about 20 - 30 minutes till it was at operating temperature while I was trying to adjust the timing. Not an easy process because the car has been standing for a long time so getting it to idle then set the timing was giving me the usual troubles. I had the added frustration of having the engine cut off a few times when the new cooling fan came on, so every time I am just about there with the timing it cuts out and repeats the process.

Then wham! No spark from the distributor? This is what I am asking for help with, how do I test the distributor or the module in it with just a test light? I have established that there is ignition power to the coil, but have absolutely no idea how to test or repair the distributor or why it would just suddenly stop working? The original distributor worked for nearly 30 years and I did not change the wiring I just added ne parts like the distributor and fan?

Please help!