Ok so today i switched out the distributor on a 383. It used to have a lockedNow out dizzy, with a crank trigger magnetic pickup. Now, the new distributor (mopar performance vacuum advance) is in place, and "times in" correctly (1@tdc, firing at 1) this has been triple checked, lol.

The car has a msd6al box with the factory purple/green wires attached to the new orange and black wires of the new distributor (purple to orange, blk to grn, per msd schematic)

After the install i had no spark on #1, (checking with a know good timing light) so i clipped it on the coil wire... The coil wire seemed to be sparking "randomly", it took about 5 seconds of cranking, then it sparked "as ide expect it to, then stopped to briefly, then continued, but would cut out every so often. So, i double checked tdc@1 timing of dizzy, made sure the pickup was real close to the starwheel, checked the rotor was touching the tit on the coil plug on the cap, (even bent it up more, could feel it contact) made sure the rotor spun wuth the engine turning, double checked all the plug wires were clipped in, rechecked the distributor wires were making good contact.

Tried again with same results, only, i got 1 single lonley spark from the #1 plug wire.

Then i called my dad, lol. He said to check the timing again, chevk wires etc so did all that over (technically, im clinically insane at this point) and yet again same results.

I guess my question is... Its obviously timed correct, even if i was magically 180 deg off, it would still spark. Plus, i did get a few random sparks from randomly chosen wires. So... What should i look at next? The msd6al worked fine before, and the dist is brand new. I did loose the instructions though. What is the gap between wheel and pickup supposed to be? Anything obvious im overlooking?

My next step i guess thinking about it would be multimeter the negative side of the wire from distributor to ground, see if its actually the pickup or the msd box missing the signal somehow. Anything else i should check?

5hr distributor install... Longest instsll.... Ever...