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1982 CJ-8 with the 258 is the first-year feedback BBD. That carb has a stepper motor on the back, an MCU under the dash, and a DuraSpark module on the driver fender. Spark at the plugs does not rule the module or the computer out, and it also does not mean the rebuilt carb is delivering a mixture the engine can light.
Do not replace the Duracraft module first. Work this order.
1. Stop flooding it
You already know 1-2-3 are wet. More cranking just washes the rest.
• Pull the plugs, dry them or put in a cheap set.
• Crank with the throttle held wide open and do not pump the pedal. WOT opens the choke and dumps the extra fuel.
• Look down the carb while cranking. If fuel is pouring or dripping from the booster nozzles, the bowl is overfull. That is float/needle, fuel pressure, or the stepper motor parked rich — not the ignition module.
2. Check the 1982-specific flood sources
On this year three things flood a freshly rebuilt BBD:
Stepper motor (rear of carb)
If it is stuck with the metering pins retracted, the carb runs rich even with a good rebuild. Unplug it. If the engine suddenly tries to fire, the motor or the MCU is holding it rich. A lot of people Nutter-bypass 82–86 CJs for exactly this.
Choke pull-off (vacuum break)
A leaking diaphragm will not open the choke after start cranking. Engine stays choked, plugs go wet, you get carbon. Apply vacuum to the can with a hand pump; it should hold and pull the choke open.
Float / needle after the rebuild
Most common shop miss: float set high, Viton needle nicked, or a speck of debris in the seat. BBD wants about 4–5 psi. A new mechanical pump at 7–9 psi will hold the needle off the seat and flood the front cylinders first.
3. Prove spark is happening at the right time
Firing order is 1-5-3-6-2-4, rotor clockwise, #1 at the front (radiator).
• #1 plug out, bump to TDC on the compression stroke (finger over the hole, you feel pressure as the mark comes up).
• Rotor must point at the #1 tower. One tooth off or 180° out gives you spark and a dead engine.
• Base timing on these is typically around 8° BTDC with vacuum advance unplugged once it will idle. If the distributor was loosened for the carb job, that alone will do this.
Open-air spark can still be too weak in the cylinder. You want a fat blue snap with the plug grounded on the head, not a thin orange one.
4. When the module actually matters
Replace the Duracraft if:
• spark is weak/orange
• you get one spark then nothing
• the module connectors are green or the potting on the back is cooked
• the black ground from the module to the distributor body is rusty
Clean those connectors and the distributor hold-down ground before you buy another box. Bad grounds kill these modules and the new coil you just installed.
On an 82 the MCU can also sit in the pickup-to-module circuit depending on how original the harness still is. If everything above is correct and it still only cranks, jumping the orange/violet pickup wires around the computer (the ignition half of a Nutter) is the next diagnostic, not another coil.
Start with WOT flood-clear, look down the carb, then rotor-at-#1 / TDC. That trio finds most “rebuilt BBD, new coil, good spark, wet 1-2-3” 82 CJ-8s. If you can say whether the stepper motor is still plugged in and whether the distributor was pulled, the next step gets narrower.
