I recently acquired a 1986 dodge 150 van equipped with a 225. It hasn't been on the road since 2001,and a couple of years ago my uncle attempted to get it running again but wasn't prepared to do any major mechanic work but he did install new plugs, wires, cap, button, filters, and a fuel pump. Upon my attempt to revive the engine I found that the gas was as red as transmission fluid and was the gas from 01' I retimed the engine by finding TDC and the rotor button pointing to the #1 point in the cap. all the plugs fire a very strong blue spark, I cleaned the carb fairly well which it needed fairly badly, but upon cranking and cranking trying to prim the carb with new gas and starting fluid I noticed the distributor buzzing when the key is in the on position so I set and cleaned the star and coils in the distributor but still buzzing I noticed the buzzing caused the #1 plug to throw a constant spark so I unplugged the distributor connections to check with a test light but when I touched the test light to the wiring harness side of one connector it caused a spark to jump from the coil to dist. wire to anything close also a spark from both the - and + terminals of the coil to the coil to dist. wire I am soon going to try a new set of pickup coils but when checked with a ohm meter they read spec by the book. my father and I are completely stumped by what we found and I cant even find a wiring harness diagram for this particular year model ...ANY help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

For the wiring diagrams (and everything else) You'll need a set of those:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid= ... &_from=R40
Good luck

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"Hey, I like that paint job you got. What they call that--sorta a cross between Piss Yellow and Puke Green, ain't it?" -- Bob Falfa

thanks I have a Haynes manual but it shows exactly everything except what I need... also any
idea on where my vans check engine light is suppose to be

Correct use of the Haynes nanual

Check this thread New To Slant-6 Car Ownership? Buy These Three Books!
Those books are really a must-have. Helped me a lot.

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"Hey, I like that paint job you got. What they call that--sorta a cross between Piss Yellow and Puke Green, ain't it?" -- Bob Falfa

If the van is still all original, then it is also equipped with some variant of the lean burn system. This means the van has a computer controlled carb, computer controlled timing, or both. The lean burn system is notoriously fault prone and usually is removed ASAP and a non-computerized ignition and/or carburetor is installed instead.
All OK, so long as the parts were installed correctly. Make sure the plug wires were installed in the correct order.
Not the best way, but OK to at least get you close to starting. The lean burn motors usually had base timing in the 12-16 BTDC range.
OK, not to be rude, but some punctuation (capitalization and sentence breaks) would help here. It sounds as if somehow there is a short between the distributor cap terminal for the rotor and the #1 plug wire. Could be a carbon track, could be a cracked cap, could be plug wires touching, could be the rotor is not seated all the way on the distributor shaft, could be the rotor is the wrong one and is hung up on the #1 plug tower terminal on the cap, could be a cracked coil housing, could be many things. You need to go back through the ignition system and carefully check that everything is assembled properly and all the wires and components that carry current between the coil and the #1 plug are installed correctly and in good condition. Also, you should check the gap between the reluctor and the pickups in the distributor.

To get a wiring diagram for a lean burn vehicle, you NEED the factory service manual. Here are the diagrams from an 83 or 84 van (NOTE: the factory literature refers to the lean burn system as the SCC, short for "spark control computer"):















In the second wiring diagram picture above, the lean burn computer is the item in the middle that looks kind of like a pyramid. The twelve pin and the ten pin plugs above that pyramid are the plugs for the lean burn wiring.

All of the above information assumes that nobody has been in there removing parts or wires or otherwise "modifying," "hacking," or "fixing" the lean burn system. If someone has been in there before you and has made modifications, there is no telling what has ben done. If this is the case then you must carefully inspect what has been changed, compare it to what was stock, and troubleshoot from there. Not fun.
It doesn't have one. I believe the first year Dodge vans got a check engine light was 88, the year after they stopped putting slant six engines in the vans. You van is square in the middle of the confusing transition period between straight carbureted vehicles with no computer and fully computerized vehicles with onboard diagnostics. Proper maintenance and repair of these vehicles requires a factory service manual set, patience, and a willingness to improvise when the original parts are no longer available or serviceable.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Thank you very much for all the info this certainly was very informative about my van. As always, its my luck to get an odd ball that's neither one way or the other but as far as I can tell, and as far back as owner history as I know it is all still original and only minor fixes have been done. Since you have knowledge of what you have told me I wonder if you might have a little more information for me, such as, if I have one where is the electronic ignition system module (EISM),spark control computer (SCC) mounted or located on my van. Four people with flashlights could not find it but we have experience in ram chargers and pickups with V-8s but no idea in vans or six cylinders. Also, if your willing to help a little more, would pictures of my engine and system provide further information that maybe I wouldn't poses. Once again, thank you so much for the information you have provided me, and sorry for the grammer and punctuation since I am a self educated, true redneck, from Virginia.

On lean burn equipped vans the SCC replaced the standard electronic ignotion module. The SCC controlled timing and dwell.

On vans the SCC was mounted on the firewall. Pop the hood and look at the radiator cap, now look straight up at the firewall. You will see a black rectangular object with a bunch of wires and a fresh air duct going to it. That is the SCC.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

well that ansers a multituted of questions but at the same time raises more such as what is the next thing i need to try since all of my engine related simple to install ignition components are new such as plugs wires cap button and coil but am still waiting on a dual pickup coil that was back ordered i would like to make for sure its something other than the SCC before i try to locate and purchase one

ok small update, my van has the SCC (the black computer where the ignition system control module is suppose to be) it also has dual pick-up coils but no electronic carburator

That is good and potentially bad news. It is good because a non-computerized carb is one less thing to worry about. It is potentially bad because SOME (not all) of the Holley 1945 carburetors installed on lean burn equipped slant sixes had a full time vacuum port for the lean burn computer vacuum transducer but no ported spark orifice for a standard vacuum advance on a distributor. Depending on whether or not you want to keep the lean burn system you may need to change carburetors.

The easiest way for you to get the van running reliably would be to switch the lean burn ignition to a HEI ignition. However, I recommend that you get the van running with the lean burn in place before you start changing things around.

When and if you decide to upgrade to the HEI ignition system, it is very very easy. You can leave all the lean burn wiring and components in place and just switch out the coil and the distributor.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

that sounds exactly like my set up, i have no vacume advance on the distributor but a vacume transducer on the computer but the vacume line seems to be intact and my carburator is clean now but could thier still be a problem with my carburator? ....additional info i found out is my terminals on the 14 pin plugin on the computer were extremly corroded but are clean now but the buzzing in the distributor is still there and changes sound if you wiggle the dist. with the cap on ...iam now going to install new pickup coils and try to obtain a ohm meter and check some things from my haynes manual.

also how much would a HEI setup cost

HEI ignition retrofit how-to

The only catch about those HEI instructions is that they don't discus converting from a lean-burn system very well. If you are going to convert from lean-burn to HEI, you get all the supplies discussed in those instructions, but you use the coil (+) feed wire as the trigger for the relay. Leave the wire hooked to the coil since it also provides the (+) feed for the coil, but run a second wire from the coil (+) terminal to the relay trigger terminal.

Ultimately, two wires from the HEI unit go to the distributor, one wire goes to the coil (-) terminal, and the last wire gets fed by the relay which itself is fed by the coil (+) wire. Very simple.

If I understand you correctly, there is a buzzing coming from the distributor when the key is turned on but the engine not running. With the key on, the only part in the distributor that will be energized is the run pickup coil. If there is a buzzing and if that buzzing changes when the distributor body is moved, I would first verify that the run coil is mounted securely and second replace the run coil. Verify the gap on the start and run pickup coils while you are in there.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

yes exactly, the buzzing sometimes persists the whole time the key is on but most of the time it quickly stops but whenever it makes the sound you can plainly see a spark jumping from the wire that goes from the ignition coil to the cap. but i do not think its my pickups because I just changed them and the new ones buzz just like the old ones. I suspect that i am either losing ground somewhere or something is grounded out either the computer or a selinoid, or one of them is simply bad

Iwould like to upgrade to the HEI but like you said I have to get the engine running first but so far it only cranks and every now and then it will begin firing even to the point it kicks the starter out, but for some reason just not enough to run

kinda sounds like its just taunting me

Your leanburn controller sounds bad. It is sending some sort of signal to the coil firing it constantly, hence the arcing / buzzing. You need to either wire in an HEI or even a regular Mopar ignition box to get it running. You could even for trial and testing, install a points dizzy. Easy to try and I am sure that it would solve your issues.

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Mattelderca
78 NYB (gone now), two S series, three old Snow Cruisers and a Doo.