with a chevy engine and hei.

[mark]

should i always have 12 volts to the dist feed or should it drop down after startup?ive burned through 2 rotors and im trying to figure out why.

[Tad]

GM HEI on my Buick 350 since 2003, full 12V, never burned a rotor up.
Not sure why you would be (that electrical stuff mystifies me).

[mark]

ive had this snapping sound in the dist for a long time now.everyone has told me its just a valve tap.i knew it was not.the module mysteriously went out about 2 mos ago.i replaced it and the coil.the snap noise was still there.i thought there might be something wrong with the dist so i bought a new one with the module in it.when i looked at the coil you could see it was burned and something was wrong.they exchanged it with a new one and i also bought a new cap and rotor but even after this i could still hear the snap.after about a week the snap was still constant but now and then it would go erratic.i removed the hei coil cover and now it was louder than ever.i drove it to autozone this way so they wouldnt think i was nuts(my friend works there and is a good mechanic at his daytime job).he heard it and ordered everything new again,new distributer,coil,cap and rotor.i installed them all the next nite and still heard the snap.
i left the coil in the old dist so he could diagnose it in case something was installed wrong.
another guy(old timer) working there examined it and said right away i had a bad wire or a wire with high resistance.i didnt believe it but went back and checked them with an ohm meter.i had 1 wire with nothing!.i had to strip it back about 1.5 in to get anything.the outside of the wire looked fine but the core was just crumbling like powder.
my engine is running 100% now and i cant remember when its ran so good!

[Ralph Rogers]

What wire are you talking about? One of the other wires going to the dist? Or the main wire going to the dist and it was arcing through?

Ralph

[mark]

it was a plug wire.sorry for the crappy description.