Need help with a MOPAR starting issue
Discussion
My brother-in law has a 1973 dodge charger 400ci that refuses to start. He has possibly found that the primary coil winding isnt sending a signal to the secondary coil winding. The whole wiring loom has been checked and all is showing continuity throughout (inc at the bulkhead connectors) and the ignition switch isnt showing any problems. The ballast resistor,voltage regulator,ecu,coil,ign pickup and rotor arm have all been changed and there is still nothing.
Come on someone,please give us some help with this as even the auto electrician who spent 4 hours on it yesterday is racking his brains......there has to be a p.h'er who may know what is causing this misery (its booked in to go to battlesbridge american show and we dont wanna go in his ruddy mini).
Come on someone,please give us some help with this as even the auto electrician who spent 4 hours on it yesterday is racking his brains......there has to be a p.h'er who may know what is causing this misery (its booked in to go to battlesbridge american show and we dont wanna go in his ruddy mini).
Fuel - yep,loads coming thru the 4 barrel.
Ignition is the dodge electronic system.
Spark - no......and that is what is confusing.the car was running ok (300bhp at wheels on the dyno) but it had been running a bit rough for a few days (intermittantly) and now refuses to even try and start. The coil,ballast,pick up,ecu,rotor arm,etc have all been replaced since but to no avail. When it turned over it gave a single weak spark and then nothing until you stopped cranking and then it gave a residual spark (which it isnt even doing now).
Ignition is the dodge electronic system.
Spark - no......and that is what is confusing.the car was running ok (300bhp at wheels on the dyno) but it had been running a bit rough for a few days (intermittantly) and now refuses to even try and start. The coil,ballast,pick up,ecu,rotor arm,etc have all been replaced since but to no avail. When it turned over it gave a single weak spark and then nothing until you stopped cranking and then it gave a residual spark (which it isnt even doing now).
He has been working on the car all day. Checked and re-checked and nothing. He has now resigned to the fact that the car wont be going to battlesbridge this sunday BUT he has a guy going round to have a full look-over it next week who is an ex-u.s race car mechanic so hopefully he may find out whats wrong with it. There is a possibility that the original ecu was faulty and that the brand new ecu is also faulty.....wont know now until the guy has checked it all out (he has all the old school testing gear,all we had was a multimeter).
Heres to hope!!
Heres to hope!!
Well......heres an update.
Anthlon - yes,to no avail.
Have now Tried bypassing the loom - nothing. Tried adding an extra earth to the ecu - again,nothing. Checked gap between pick-up and reductor - perfect (.008 of an inch) and functioning well within tollerance. All connections on the bulkhead are spot on to the ballast,ecu and everwhere else under the bonnet and at the bulkhead connect. Voltage is correct at all points under the bonnet. Tried bypassing ballast (nothing), tried another new ecu......its rediculous.
There is no add-on ign cut off switches or any sort of added kill switches on the car.
Its mad. It cranks great,only gives a single spark on initial turn of the key and then nothing until you release it from cranking and then it gives a residual spark. The voltage regulator was changed not long before the prob started and im wondering if its fried something either on the dash (ammeter) or the second stage of the ignition system dash side (apart from its reading right at the ballast) .........whatever it is, Its now becoming rather frustrating.
Anthlon - yes,to no avail.
Have now Tried bypassing the loom - nothing. Tried adding an extra earth to the ecu - again,nothing. Checked gap between pick-up and reductor - perfect (.008 of an inch) and functioning well within tollerance. All connections on the bulkhead are spot on to the ballast,ecu and everwhere else under the bonnet and at the bulkhead connect. Voltage is correct at all points under the bonnet. Tried bypassing ballast (nothing), tried another new ecu......its rediculous.
There is no add-on ign cut off switches or any sort of added kill switches on the car.
Its mad. It cranks great,only gives a single spark on initial turn of the key and then nothing until you release it from cranking and then it gives a residual spark. The voltage regulator was changed not long before the prob started and im wondering if its fried something either on the dash (ammeter) or the second stage of the ignition system dash side (apart from its reading right at the ballast) .........whatever it is, Its now becoming rather frustrating.
Well......heres an update.
Anthlon - yes,to no avail.
Have now Tried bypassing the loom - nothing. Tried adding an extra earth to the ecu - again,nothing. Checked gap between pick-up and reductor - perfect (.008 of an inch) and functioning well within tollerance. All connections on the bulkhead are spot on to the ballast,ecu and everwhere else under the bonnet and at the bulkhead connect. Voltage is correct at all points under the bonnet. Tried bypassing ballast (nothing), tried another new ecu......its rediculous.
There is no add-on ign cut off switches or any sort of added kill switches on the car.
Its mad. It cranks great,only gives a single spark on initial turn of the key and then nothing until you release it from cranking and then it gives a residual spark. The voltage regulator was changed not long before the prob started and im wondering if its fried something either on the dash (ammeter) or the second stage of the ignition system dash side (apart from its reading right at the ballast) .........whatever it is, Its now becoming rather frustrating.
Anthlon - yes,to no avail.
Have now Tried bypassing the loom - nothing. Tried adding an extra earth to the ecu - again,nothing. Checked gap between pick-up and reductor - perfect (.008 of an inch) and functioning well within tollerance. All connections on the bulkhead are spot on to the ballast,ecu and everwhere else under the bonnet and at the bulkhead connect. Voltage is correct at all points under the bonnet. Tried bypassing ballast (nothing), tried another new ecu......its rediculous.
There is no add-on ign cut off switches or any sort of added kill switches on the car.
Its mad. It cranks great,only gives a single spark on initial turn of the key and then nothing until you release it from cranking and then it gives a residual spark. The voltage regulator was changed not long before the prob started and im wondering if its fried something either on the dash (ammeter) or the second stage of the ignition system dash side (apart from its reading right at the ballast) .........whatever it is, Its now becoming rather frustrating.
IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Found the problem after testing every ruddy piece of wiring,connections,etc......
It was the main battery earthing clamp that wasnt fully gripping the battery neg terminal,even tho it was done up fully. it had been split by a local garage when it went for new brake lines.
An earth was added to the original earth terminal on the battery (as this was the only place that we hadnt tried),turned her over and she fired into life. As you can imagine,after all the work we have done trying to find the problem and replacing and re-gapping everything we could think that could be causing the problem the car ticks over like a purring kitten (well...a purring lion) and you can balance a coin on the airbox.
We took it out for a test drive and at no point did the smiles leave our faces - it cruised around southend without any effort and when you floored the throttle it shot off like a scalded moggy. Im still smiling now and ive been in for 20 mins 🙂 (altho admitting it was the main earth that was the prob does make both me and my bro-in-law feel like bellends,if it can fool auto sparkies then i guess it isnt that bad).
Thanks everyone for your input. It was alot of help and gratefully recieved.
Found the problem after testing every ruddy piece of wiring,connections,etc......
It was the main battery earthing clamp that wasnt fully gripping the battery neg terminal,even tho it was done up fully. it had been split by a local garage when it went for new brake lines.
An earth was added to the original earth terminal on the battery (as this was the only place that we hadnt tried),turned her over and she fired into life. As you can imagine,after all the work we have done trying to find the problem and replacing and re-gapping everything we could think that could be causing the problem the car ticks over like a purring kitten (well...a purring lion) and you can balance a coin on the airbox.
We took it out for a test drive and at no point did the smiles leave our faces - it cruised around southend without any effort and when you floored the throttle it shot off like a scalded moggy. Im still smiling now and ive been in for 20 mins 🙂 (altho admitting it was the main earth that was the prob does make both me and my bro-in-law feel like bellends,if it can fool auto sparkies then i guess it isnt that bad).
Thanks everyone for your input. It was alot of help and gratefully recieved.
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