Hi everyone, nubie needs help...

72 Dart, Grandma's car. Decided it needed electronic ignition so I bought the conversion from Bill Rolick. Installation instructions were pretty lame but with the wiring diagram in my haynes manual I think I got it right.

So everything appeared to be normal for about 8 months and then one day it refused to fire. Checked thru everything and could not find a problem. Randomly it would start and then the next day no dice.

Checked thru the ignition system per the haynes manual ( ballast resistor, voltage etc) could not find fault. Replaced the coil with a MSD blaster and it ran better than it ever did, for a day. Now I get spark sometimes, other times not. Went thru all wiring connections I made and everthing is OK. All wire splices were soldered and heat shrinked. Now I'm suspecting the ECU but I hate to just throw $ at the problem.

Also, what voltage is supposed to be at the positive terminal to the coil when the ignition is on? The manual does not tell you.

Thanks in advance. Vince B.

Welcome on the board, Vince. First thing to do is throw away that Haynes manual, which is full of bad info, and get the real manual.

Next time the car won't fire, try turning the ignition key to "run" (not "start"), then going under the hood and carefully using a screwdriver to touch together the two terminals on the starter motor. If the engine starts, then the fault is in the ignition switch or the wiring between the ignition switch and the rest of the ignition system.

The ECU could be faulty; I don't recall which ones Bill R is selling, but at one point they were old-stock 5-pin genuine Mopar units. Those should be okeh, but if that's not what you got then anything's possible. It's a good idea to carry a spare module anyhow, so you may decide to buy a spare. If you do, shop carefully; get nothing but a Standard LX101 module (or if you feel like going another direction, see the HEI upgrade thread).

Careful with that MSD Blaster coil; they are now made in China and quality and reliability have dropped quite a bit.

Tune-up parts and technique suggestions in this thread.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks Dan,

Yeah no doubt about that Haynes manual, it sucks. The ECU is a knockoff, probobly Asian. I'll try the screwdriver trick.

Jumping the starter didn't work.

Okeh, well, a knockoff ECU (grrr ) becomes a suspect, then. Try swapping and see if that gets 'er started.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

10-4 on the asian junk. BTW where would one locate a genuine Mopar ECU? I don't want to do this again. Man, that HEI looks good, I should have done some research. I suspect I could still go that route.

Don't buy a new current-production Mopar ECU; no matter what colour they're painted (orange, chrome, etc.) they're -- you guessed it! -- Chinese junk. If you're buying a new ECU, make it a Standard number LX101...I can't even say for sure where those are made any more, though. You can probably get a new old stock American-made Mopar or Echlin item from Old Car Parts Northwest.

Or yes, you could substitute an HEI module and coil and lose the ballast resistor.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

With ignition on, car not running you ought to see about 6-8V at the +coil with the factory ballast. When cranking, you ought to see ~12V there coming from the starter relay. If that relay is flaky, you could get great ignition while running, but none when cranking.

The coil-to-dist wire is critical - I have those test out perfectly, but still cause poor ignition off and on - took a long time to find. Try another coil-to-dist wire.

Don't forget to double check the ground at the ECU; I've seen a poor connection there cause problems. One pin of the inductive pickup usually gets grounded - you could check that there for a good ground. I've seen coils get flaky, sometimes even when brand new.

I've also once seen a factory female 5-pin connector fail to make proper contact with the ECU after years of use - the owner put a piece of aluminum foil in the hole to make a temporary contact and it ran for years that way.

I've also had a ignition modules go bad - I suggest you carry a spare ECU, ballast, coil, and coil-to-dist wire (I do). Good luck!

Man, you guys are great! First thing I did was secure all the grounds and made sure they were clean. Also I changed the wire between the coil and distrbutor, got nothing there. Rolik has the OEM /NOS ecm, wants $80, going to call northwest and check his price. I will keep you guys updated.

$80 is too much you can do better. IMO
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

Ok you guys, I'm guilty of being a little stupid. Searchng around this site I found a much better wiring diagram for the ignition conversion. I left out the jumper on the ballast resistor. It seems I was not getting 12 volts at startup, needless to say I am now. I also did the fuel line swap to rubber fuel injection hose, what an improvement. Thanks guys!

In the future if you ever find that the rpms are not smooth by slowly reving it out of gear. Recheck the ground on the ECU......it is critical to a smooth running motor.
I run and extra gound wire to mu ECU and star washer under it. Be sure all the paint is cleaned off the box at the mounting bolt hole for a good connection.

The other day my car wasn't perfect at some rpms. Rechecking/cleaning the grounding cleared it up.

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Aggressive Ted

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