Back to basics
In automotive school the first thing they teach you is you need gas in the tank to start an engine.
That's also the first thing I forgot.
Recently I spent a whole week diagnosing dead-end, phantom problems on my old Grand Prix only to find I was out of gas.
I was entirely embarrassed and wondered if I should bury this blunder so deep as to never see the light of day.
Instead I dragged my deflated confidence in the house demoralized and immediately told my wife.
The good news was that I found other minor problems that would've surfaced soon and also found the missing distributor mechanical advance springs I thought I lost - more on that later.
It all started with an oil change - yeah laugh it up.
After topping it off with oil, I pulled the hot wire to the MSD ignition box as I've done many times before to crank up the motor to build oil pressure before firing it up.
When I tried to fire it up, it backfired real bad, then wouldn't even pop.
I was convinced I blew the ignition module.
So my apologies to the MSD tech line for wasting their time. Also, I give my thanks to the incredibly knowledgeable staff there.
All I had to do was siphon a gallon of gas into the tank from my motorcycle to get it to fire.
Go figure.
I'm going back to basics.