440 Electronic Ignition Conversion- cutting out
 

Hi there,

I found this forum while searching for a solution to my problem.

I have a 440 Magnum in a Samco Cord. I have a Blaster 2 coil and recently decided to upgrade to the Mopar electronic ignition conversion kit (orange box) to set and forget the timing.

The car ran well throughout the rpm range before the addition of electronic ignition. After, well it runs great up until about 3500 rpms and then there is a studder where the ignition seems to be cutting out. (Oh and this is with the mechanical advance only, I haven't set-up the vacumm advance yet). The car is noticibly smoother at idle and part throttle, so I can't understand why it would be cutting out at higher rpms.

I found that the ballast resistor was getting 12.0 volts at idle, and the kit suggests 12.5v minimum. So today I installed a Mopar voltage regulator (the >'72 version). I also rechecked all the grounds to the ECU and the voltage regulator. The studdering remains.

The plugs and upgraded plug wires are new. Any ideas on what else I should check? I'm starting to get frustrated...

Cheers,
Craig

Welcome to the forum.

I assume you converted from a points setup?

Did you replace the distributor?

Is the vacuum line for the advance in the carb plugged?

Hi! Thanks!

I did convert from a points setup.

The distributor was included in the Mopar Performance kit.

The vacuum line for the advance IS plugged.


Any other ideas?

-Craig

Double check your timing and if all else fails, re-install your dist. Sounds like your timing might be off. Also might want to check the carb with with a vac meter, check air/fuel mix. Volt regulator as well. . .

Thanks for the input.

I advanced the heck out of the timing and it did the trick. The car runs awesome!

I feel like an idiot, but it's very possible I was looking the wrong mark on the crank pulley for the timing mark. There is a line etched into the harmonic balancer and then there is a half moon cut out.

Using the half moon mark, with the base timing set to 5* BTDC, the car has no studdering and no denotation. After attaching the vacuum advance, things just got more exciting. Even more power and smoothness at high rpms.

I need to pick up a vacuum tool/gauge to properly set the timing, but at least I now know that the problem was timing related and not something to do with my wiring or the ECU.

Cheers,
Craig