I just put a freshly rebuilt 383 in my 1972 Charger and decided to upgrade the ignition to electronic. I picked up a "slightly" used ACCEL Electronic Ignition kit that came complete with distributor, orange box, harness and resistor (broken during shipping). It has no spark at the coil while cranking, however when the key is turned off it shoots one quick spark. It is wired correctly with the black wire to the neg side of the coil and the blue wire to the resistor (blue wire). I ran a seperate ground from the box to the neg side of the battery to ensure a good ground. After scratching my head for a few minutes and rechecking connections I decided to install the stock (points) distributor, The car fired right up. So I seem to have a problem with something in the electronic distributor system. I used the stock resistor, does the electronic need a different one? I used the stock coil, does the electronic need a different one? I used the stock rotor, does the electronic need a different one or Should I go right to the orange box?

 

Couple of things.

First and foremost, get yourself some brass (non magnetic) feeler gauges and carefully set the reluctor gap to .008"

Next, hook your meter to the distributor 2-wire connector on low AC volts and either spin the dist. by hand or crank the engine. The dist. pickup should "generate" about 1V AC

IF this is OK, check your "dark blue" feeding 12V to the system from the bulkhead. To do this, turn the key to "run" engine stopped.

Compare the battery voltage to the voltage to the "key" side of the ballast. You should be getting LESS than a 1/2 V difference between the two.

An easier way of measuring the drop directly is to put one probe on the "dark blue" feed terminal, the other onto battery positive post. Once again, less than 1/2 V is what you should read, the less the better.

NEXT check your cranking voltage. The coil + side of the ballast resistor should be connected to the brown which comes from the bulkhead. VERY important, this brown BYPASSES the resistor during cranking.

This time, clip your meter to the + side of the coil, and crank the engine USING THE KEY. You should read 10.5V MINIMUM more is better.

 

Thanks for the input, Except for the first two items, Reluctor gap and pick-up volts, wouldnt the rest of the items be consistant with either the electronic or stock distributor? The car started just fine with the stock (points) distributor.

 

NO, low voltage to the ECU either from the run circuit or the bypass circuit could be "just low enough" to push the ECU over the edge and prevent triggering.

Also, and I'm not sure, but it stands to reason that points system "overall" draws less current than the box, so any voltage drop is probably made worse by the electronics.

All of these old girls are suspect, with old wiring. The bulkhead connectors have become particularly probelmatic, along with "the usual" IE bad connections at the ignition switch connector, or a damaged ignition switch itself.

Realize that there are several feeds through that bulkhead--one from the alternator, one from the battery, everything "goes up" to the ammeter circuit, and there is an "in harness" splice that is subject to failure (I've found three or four in my lifetime) as well as the connector on the switch, and the switch itself.

Both the "dark blue" "ignition run" (ign1) and the brown bypass (ign2) come through the bulkhead as well.

On my own 67, before I recently did some rewiring, there was a ONE VOLT drop between the battery and the "dark blue" ignition feed.

By the way, this drop ALSO causes the alternator to overcharge

 

would a bad battery cause these problems? The battery we used cranked the car for a little while, then went dead and would not turn the car over. we put in another with the same results. swapped distributors and pulled a good battery from one of the other cars and the charger started.

 

YEP. There is a limit to how low you can go on voltage. That's why I posted the voltage readings. Even after you get a good battery back in, I'd make those tests