Engine dies, but turn the key off and back on it fires right back up

stumblinhorse said
Stock’ish 69 318. Converted to mopar style electronic ignition couple years back. Summit racing brand. Ballast resistor still in place. Engine been running fine for a couple thousand miles on the electronic setup. It just started in the last day, to die driving down the road. I turn the key off then hit start it starts right back up and runs for remainder of the drive. Done it a couple times now.

Figured the ecu is going out? But not seen one “reset” and work fine.

Second question is it worth the extra couple hundred bucks to go to a MSD box or just buy a summit brand orange ecu? in a stock’ish 318?

thanks for any help!

It could also be a crappy contact in the ignition switch loosing the connection and turning the key re makes the contact.
Seen this before on other switches too.

Johnny Mac said
above are three good starting points. I have come across all three of those at different times in the past.

I have had bad/loose battery terminals cause what you're describing.
Also had a bad main ground cable at the battery that had corroded inside. merely moving it around would connect/disconnect ground current.
and yes...also chased a bad pickup coil in the distributor...but...that was never a "fired right back up" thing. it would die for hours...then you'd hit the key and vroom.

I chased a problem where the car would start in the morning but sometimes not when already warmed up. (crank fine but no spark)
Ended up being the distributor pigtail loosing contact when it got warm.
Have seen do the opposite also.
Won't start in the morning, but would later in the day after it got warmer out.