Ignition Troubles Part Deux

Alright here,s the scoop up to today...
Last Saturday..I buy a non running mazda for $160.00. Ignition problems. Owner had replaced coil, cap and rotor, plugs and wires, to no avail, and hes given up. Cheap winter truck for me.
I start checking things out. Find that there is no spark from the coil to the distributor cap. OK, so that tells me the problem is likely the coil.
I look at the wiring hes done, and compare it to my wiring diagram. Coil is wired backwards, so its likely fried.
Buy new coil, wire it up according to diagram...vroom. truck runs. all is well.


or so I thought.

Fix up the rust on the floor, and sand down the whole truck for a quick pre winter budget paint job. Go to move the truck out of the hoist area so theres room to spray it. No start. No spark again.

So I go the the autowrecker today, and grab another coil out of a truck. It was wired as mine is now, so that reconfirms that mine IS wired correctly. get back to the shop and plunk it in. No go. Alright. So i change out the little resistor thing on the rad cradle since i grabbed one from the wrecker just in case. Still no go. Alright, could be a dud coil..who knows how long its been at the wrecker. So i put things back to how they were with the other coil. Boom got spark, and runs...for about 5 minutes, then dies.

So now I'm back at square 1...No spark from coil to distributor...any ideas?

Truck is an 88 B2200.

make sure everything is grounded good. bad grounds give you some crazy problems. make sure they are not all rusted and make sure they are tight.

The only ground that it shows as part of the ignition system is the condensor. I'm assuming its the little black cube located up by the distributor. Its definetly contacting where its screwed down.

have u checked the main relay? or the ignition switch? check to see if your getting 12 volts on the positve side of the coil, are the dummy lights on the dash lighting up?

That is the noise reducer thing for the raido check all the gounds under the hood and bad ground anywere under there could give you trouble

CORRECT ME IF I'M WORNG, BUT ISN'T THE LITTLE BLACK BOX ON THE DIZZY IS THE IGNITOR......THE "RESISTOR" ON THE RAD SUPPORT NEXT TO THE COIL IS THE RADIO INTERFERENCE CAPACITOR...

WITH THE COIL WIRED IN BACKWARDS POLARITY IT COULD HAVE JACKED UP THE IGNITOR ON THE DIZZY NOT ALLOWING THE TRUCK TO FIRE....

U have 4 ground wires on the truck,at least.The ground on the battery,two on the engine,one from cab to frame and one on the coil.Take them off ,sand the side that attaches to metal and reatttach tightly.The small black cube on the dist is the igniter as NYTRD said. The other cube on the rad spt is either a heat sink or the radio interference capacitor (not sure which). As I indicated in an earlier post,I have a working STOCK Hanjin coil u can try if u still think it is a coil problem.With all due respect, either ur truck is wired wrong or mine is and mine runs great.BJ

My truck is wired according to the mitchell on demand diagram I have, and its wired the same as the one I pulled from the wrecker.
I'll go over all the grounds I can find.

hocbj23...if u still just want shipping for the coil, I'll take it if u can accept paypal.

I might just end up bringing it into a shop, since I dont have much time to get this thing on the road.

The mitchell diagram showed the black wire goes to the condenser...the only all black wire goes to that little black cube by the dist.

The coil has power on both sides with the key on run...is this normal?

I dont know enough about this stuff.

Naw,man.Give me an address and I will send it to u. If it works fine. If it doesnt,send it back.If u have current to both sides of coil, ur coil should be ok.If it ran when u swapped from new coil to old,that suggests a loose connection somewhere ,not a part that needs replacing.Someone posted cneck ur ignition switch and I would do that.Just jiggle the switch when it wont start and see if it catches.Also, if ur trcuk is 5 speed, dont u have to push clutch in to start truck?There is a switch on the clutch that has to close before the truck will start. Have u checked that ?On my automatic, it is on the brake pedal. BJ