I have a 1982 dodge d-150. It used to be my dad's but the motor was on it's last legs so he swapped it for one that was out of a 1975 dodge dart. when we tried to start it the battery lost it's charge almost imeiently and it would only crank for a couple of seconds, after that the only thing it would do was make a clicking noise when you turn the key. My dad recently got a new truck so he gave this one to me. This truck has an electronic spark control system in it the wiring is terrible. Some of the wiring for the Electronic spark control system isn't hooked up other parts have been cut. I bought a conversion kit that changed the ignition to just normal elctronic ignition hoping this would fix the problem. I installed it but I still have the same problem. I was wondering if it could be one of the wires on the electronic spark control since it is still hooked up minus the ignition part. Also would it be possible to completly take off the elctronic spark control system including all of the bad wiring that goes with it or is there something else important that it still controls?

Before you do anything else you need to charge the battery or replace it if it won't hold a charge. It's nearly impossible to properly troubleshoot the ignition and electrical system if you don't have a fully charged battery. In addition, a Factory Service Manual ( not a Chilton's, Motor's, or Haynes ) will be invaluable in tracing the wiring to get everything correctly hooked up.

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

we bought a service manual off of ebay before i changed ignitions and the battery is brand new we just bought it about a month ago and have tried it in other cars and it works fine.

i dont know anything about your truck, but you might look into an hei conversion, just search for it using the search buttons up top on this site, if you have a factory electronic dist you can just hook it up to a gm hei module and then run wires from that to the coil, someone can correct me if im wrong, but it seems like it could be helpful since its fairly simple and bypasses some other electronic ignition things that could be faulty, plus if you run new wires when you do it then youll know theyre right, (if you follow the instructions of course) just did it on my dart, had some issues when we swapped the dist, but if youve already got that in correctly should be easy, were doing it on my dads 64 truck soon because we put in a 73 motor and the truck had a hokey aftermarket points to electronic ignition conversion setup that was oozing goo under the seat...so, like i said, someone can correct me if im wrong, i dont know what all the spark control controls, good luck!

If the battery is draining that quickly then you have a major short circuit somewhere. You need to fix that before you try any upgrades.

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

I think that the short is in one of the wires leading to the electronic control system. I installed a normal aftermarket elctronic ignition but the instructions I was given told me just to leave everything else hooked up to the spark control system but I think that is where the short is since alot of the wiring for it has been cut/burned I even if that isn't where the short is it would make it easier to find the short.

We have an 81 D150 that had a fried SCC, we converted it over to the lean burn. I went through all my files and couldn't find all of the instruction. The other /6 site had them listed but it went belly up. But if you email either johnb66@aol.com or truckmen@yahoo.com they may have the instructons.

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If it ain't broke, you didn't have fun playin' with it.

'74 Duster
'74 Valiant

We have an 81 D150 that had a fried SCC, we converted it over to the lean burn. I went through all my files and couldn't find all of the instruction. The other /6 site had them listed but it went belly up. But if you email either johnb66@aol.com or truckmen@yahoo.com they may have the instructons.

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If it ain't broke, you didn't have fun playin' with it.

'74 Duster
'74 Valiant

Have you checked the Voltage Regulator? Mine started to go bad and would drain the battery.

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82 D150 Slant6 Shorty
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/658846

SCC and Lean burn are pretty much the same thing. They just changed the name a few times over the years; regardless what it was called the year your truck was made, theyre all JUNK!

does anybody know if i can saftley remove it since I installed a normal electtronic ignition?

Yes you can! I did it, I was scared too. What I did was once I had everything else hooked up I started the engine and unplugged the computer. It kept running so, I knew the computer wasn't running anything. I followed those wires that were connected to the computer back and either cut or disconnected them from the main harness. If I remember correctly, a couple of them came to a junction of soldered wires and I cut the ones from the computer and left the others together and tapped them up.
Here's what one guy had left over.

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82 D150 Slant6 Shorty
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/658846

thank you for all of your help I will try removing it soon hopefully this will fix the short I will keep you updated.

I SERIOUSLY doubt that. You say that it will only crank for a second or two then quit. Assuming you really have a good battery, that would require a *monster* short-circuit drain current to run the battery down in just a few seconds. The wires leading to the electronic control system are so small that they'd go up in a puff of smoke *long* before that. Now if you mean that the battery lasts overnight and then the next morning it goes dead in a few seconds, I might believe that. And it doesn't need to be a "short" either- if you accidentally tapped into a power source that is always on for your electronic conversion, that means the module is always on and drawing power. The coil might be powered separately so that the truck will still shut off with the key off, but if the ignition module is always on that WILL drain the battery.

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from what u say, "It'll only CRANK a few seconds",,, do u mean that the starter stops turning the engine over or it sounds like itll run when you first try to start the engine then keeps spinning but wont fire?