NEED HELP! 1966 Electra died while driving and wont start.

[scenexsick]

Any help would be appreciated. I was driving and all was good until it suddenly died on me. I pulled over and cranked again and started, then died again. I thought i should make my way back home carefully so babied it and kept dying and restrating until this last time. Now it wont start and even using starter fluid, wont spark. It has an hei distributor that was recently adjusted by a neighbor claiminmnbg they knew what to do by adjusting the vaccuum advance. The rest has been good for a long time and all wires that i can tell are good. Dont know if there is spark yet, butr before going any further wanted to check with yall. Thanks!

 

[Bob]

The first thing is fuel and spark. From what you tried, it probably isn't fuel, but most would look down the carburetor and pump cycle the carb throttle and watch for fuel coming out of the accelerator pump shooters. Then spark, usually checked by pulling a wire off a plug and checking it for spark jump to a ground on the engine (HIGH VOLTAGE! must be done carefully by someone with experience), can be done by pulling a plug, installing it in the boot and grounding the plug against the engine.
The problem will not be related to vacuum advance adjustment. Perhaps you neighbor can help you.

 

[GL03]

I was waiting for scenexsick to say he turned up the carb idle scew just a bit to get home. Anyone else anticipating that?

starter fluid is when there is no fuel. you possibly drowned it. won't spark might be a clue. the vacuum advance comes in off idle.
i'm going to stop here before I get called out for poor advice.

 

[mgaugustine]

I am not familiar with electronic ignition conversions. That having been said... usually electronic ignition puts out a pretty solid spark. I don't know that a stock coil would do that... could you maybe have gotten the stock coil hot and eventually fried it out? It seems like a long shot as I think it would run pretty poorly first, but I thought it was worth an ask.

Pretty hard to diagnose this stuff long distance.