No spark?

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kempkan

kempkan

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Well i went out to play with the car today relocated the fuel pump and changed all the hoses and lines(they leaked). Then decided to unbolt the headers. Well i started it up it was running great then just shut off. I filled the car with gas and still nothing. Pump is running and getting pressure at the gauge and down the carb. I then decided to put a screw driver in a wire while my dad cranked it and nothing. The car is a 73 dart swinger with a 318. I had an extra ignition box from my truck and a new ballast resister swapped them out and nothing. Where do i even begin?
 
kempkan said:
Well i went out to play with the car today relocated the fuel pump and changed all the hoses and lines(they leaked). Then decided to unbolt the headers. Well i started it up it was running great then just shut off. I filled the car with gas and still nothing. Pump is running and getting pressure at the gauge and down the carb. I then decided to put a screw driver in a wire while my dad cranked it and nothing. The car is a 73 dart swinger with a 318. I had an extra ignition box from my truck and a new ballast resister swapped them out and nothing. Where do i even begin?
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Volt meter: take voltage reading with key on at the coil +. Then see what the voltage is there when you are cranking it. You might also take a jumper wire from the: battery + to the coil +, and see if it will fire. Check for a good ground on the ignition box!
 
ok i tried swapping ignition boxes coils and ballasts. I even tried a voltage regulator. Could the pick up be bad? Can anyone give me volt and ohm specs for all of thes parts. Im hoping its not a distributor but who knows. Any info on voltage and ohms would help a great deal. Thanks
 
ok checked all the stuff three times now and swapped everything but the distributor. i need the know what kind of voltage and ohm specs for the primary and secondary ignition system.
 
ok just went and bought a pick up and still nothing. i put a test light from battery positve to both sides of the coil. The test light illuminated on both sides. Do i have a short somewhere? HELP PLEASE!!
 
Check the ground to the ignition ECU box.My Duster wouldnt start because it wasnt grounded good.When you put the pick-up in,did you set the gap between the reluctor and pickup?Should be set at .008 with a brass feeler gauge.Try a jumper from the battery + to the coil positive and try it .
 
on ignition module unplugged test for power key on and cranking. Same + on coil.dark blue yellow stripe dark green red stripe
 
it doesnt seem to be cranking faster than normal. i tried the jumper trick from battery positve to coil positve and no spark. i did set the air gap in the pick up to .008. the old one wasnt bad either i finally took my volt/ohm meter home from work. The resistance is low from pin 5 on th box to the fender i know that is good. While i was testing that i did notice that i have a 5 pin plug and a 4 pin box with a dual ballast. ???? I dont know how that would even work. someone please explain what this kid was trying to do. is there a reason he could have done this. by the way my dad was holding a screw driver in the coil wire to the cap and when i switch the ignition on he got popped but nothin while crankiing. any help is greatly appreciated im 25 and loosing my hair over this already lol.
 
I think im just going to do a custom wiring harness and just eliminatr all my lights for now unless i can get some feedback soon. I just got my 8 3/4 housing painted and my axles just came in from dr. diff and i want run it on thursday. Im going to eliminate the bulkhead connector toggle the fan pump and ignition hook up the tac oil and digital speedo and see how it goes. Any ideas untill then please let me know. THANKS
 
I would wire (rewire) the ballast for the 4 pin. Also, are you getting "key on" voltage at the ballast?
 
yeah i was getting power there but none to the pick up. i figured ignition box but i tried that too and still nothing.
 
Crappy plug drawing

1ecu.jpg
 
I just went out and eliminated everything (including the charging system and ignition) and cut the wires and attached jumpers straight to the battery for the 12 volt source and got good spark. Can anything in the charging system cause a no start like this? Like i said he had it set up weird and had a 4 pin ignition box with a 4 prong ballast following these wires are a nightmare. There has to be an open somewhere i just cant seem to find it. Toggle switch ignition? Painless wiring system?
 
kempkan said:
I just went out and eliminated everything (including the charging system and ignition) and cut the wires and attached jumpers straight to the battery for the 12 volt source and got good spark. Can anything in the charging system cause a no start like this? Like i said he had it set up weird and had a 4 pin ignition box with a 4 prong ballast following these wires are a nightmare. There has to be an open somewhere i just cant seem to find it. Toggle switch ignition? Painless wiring system?
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I would suggest at this point you get it all wired correct. Each part of the system can then be trouble shooted individually. No toggles or painless.
Follow the link diagram is is at the bottom.
http://www.mymopar.com/downloads/elecignconv.pdf
 
Can anyone give me a detailed diagram of the bulk head connector? I had the car running today by running jumpers on the ignition system which would lead me to wonder if it isnt an ignition switch or the bulk head. Again though it doesnt make sense why everything worked but the ignition. I have a wiring diagram but he has wires spliced everywhere and next to impossible to follow a diagram of the bulk head will do wonders then i will know what should actually go where.
 
no bulk head connector diagrams out there? like i said at this point i need to start over and dont know what is what on those connectors. some are cut and some have a couple on one spade. anyone?
 
thanks war wagons this is exactly what i wanred. thank you again i will update when its running. i was hoping this weekend but i have to put another motor in my dads concorde! he needs to keep the foot off the floor this will be the third time. i better start getting paid for this lol. thank you and thanks to fabo!
 
Well i want thank fabo and everyone who tried giving me a hand. The wiring diagram i had was way off(hayes all i could find quickly). I dont exactly know where the open was but i ran all new wires under the hood cranked it over and fired right up. Electrical done now the new housing and dr diffs axles sitting there waing to be installed. THANKS EVERYONE!
 
Well update #2 i went today to wire the tach and digital speedo. The car ran today wired the few things into the radio wire(no longer has a radio)and now there is no spark again. I did notice that the coil is too hot to touch and the voltmeter is almost the whole way up. Figured the alt was just charging the battery ive been cranking over for the past few weeks. Is it normal for a coil to get this hot? It was new the other was losing some oil figured i would replace it. Where did i go wrong here?
 
kempkan said:
Well update #2 i went today to wire the tach and digital speedo. The car ran today wired the few things into the radio wire(no longer has a radio)and now there is no spark again. I did notice that the coil is too hot to touch and the voltmeter is almost the whole way up. Figured the alt was just charging the battery ive been cranking over for the past few weeks. Is it normal for a coil to get this hot? It was new the other was losing some oil figured i would replace it. Where did i go wrong here?
Click to expand...

OK, where did you hook the tack wire that goes to the coil?

I would disconnect the wire for the tach. that goes to the coil and see if it starts. If it starts and runs the next step is to get a voltmeter while it's running and check voltage at the + side of the coil and post the reading. It should be like 6 to 8 volts.

If it still won't start go back and check the voltage at the + side of the coil while cranking?
 
Im not near the car right now but im pretty sure it was the negative side. It is the side that goes directly to the 5 pin ignition box. I had the ignition key on for a while making sure i had the right power wire for the tach and speedo. Thats when i noticed the coil was super hot. Tried to start it and nothing. Could the ballast be hooked up wrong since i bought it? Im not sure how it goes but i have the connector with the 4 wires on the side open on the end and NOT the inward hole. Am i just burning up coils this way?
 
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