Petronix failure???

[canada karl]

I was having cranking but no start issues and went thru the checks for fuel and have determined that it is an ignition problem. There is no power to the plugs or Dist? The rotor is OK. I had installed a cheap aftermarket Dist cap and I thought the issue might be the carbon button was not making proper contact so I swapped in another dist cap but no change. There is power to the coil. I'm thinking that the Petronix has failed? Is there a way to test the Petronix? I do have a "known to be good points Dist" in another 530i. Can I just swap in the points Dist? What kind of problems can I run into when doing that?
Karl

[Mike W.]

There were at least two different distributors on 530s, although it may have been a California/non California thing, but other than needing to set the timing and possibly by pass whatever Petronix wiring there might be, it'll be fine.

I don't know on the Petronix but on 528i electronic ignition distributors you can get the dist to a point where you can move the rotor back and forth against the centrifugal advance springs enough to generate a spark for testing purposes. Saves a lot of time.