silvermopar

Well... I got my 318 settled down between the fenders of my 1990 Dodge Ramcharger. Pulled it and rebuilt it to clean it up. minimal boaring and put it all back together. Just tried to go through the fireing up process and to my dismay there was no fire when I wanted it. No spark at the plugs, no spark at the coil, and no power going into the coil.

The engin rebuild took me about a month. Durring which time it sat out doors with no hood. Recieved a little rain, and a light bit of snow. All electrical connectors that I can find or remember disconnecting are now connected. I was as careful doing everything as I could/knew how. When I connected the battery I noticed a bit more spark than I was expecting, so, I dug out the ol' meter it showed just around 3 amps for a short while, then the draw seemed to subside (the arc was almost not observable at the battery) and I did not check it again. I asume some capaciter or other part, perhaps from my stereo was charging up after a month without power. I traced the wires from the coil a short ways and they went into a large loom which I did not cut apart yet to see further where they went.

What might the cause be? Again... it appears to have no power going to the coil with the key on.

scotts74birds

Is this a computer controlled motor?

silvermopar

unfortunatly... but one of the early bastids so it is not as "smart" as today's programable ones.

scotts74birds

Before spending any money on ignition parts, you want to check all the sensor connections. On these computer motors the coil is fired by the SBEC,[single board engine controller]. If it is not seeing an input that it wants, then it will not tell the coil to fire. Is the fuel pump pressurizing? It operates the same way, if input conditions are not met, the pump wont come on. Insure that there is no corrosion or bent pins at the 60 pin connector on the SBEC.

silvermopar

Well, I do not remember any 60 pin connector... most I can remember would be a few connectors with 4 wires, they go to the Throttle Body in various places and the O2 sensor connector apeared to have 4. I did see fuel being shot by the injectors. The intake manifold was wet and I could also hear it operate. I agree, perhaps some sensor, mabye even the dang computer box from moister or other corroded part. I just do not want to trace the power wire from the coil to where it would recieve the signal from. Too many wires, and looms lol I guess thats my project for tomorrow. Untill then, perhaps someone could give me info as to how a little of the mess operates, what conditons (sensors) must be met, where sensory wires lead to... etc Thanks all.

scotts74birds

I think the negative coil wire is a black with gray that goes straight to the SBEC. I dont have the right manual to tell you which terminal it goes to. The SBEC switches the negative path of the coil to control coil firing and timing

silvermopar

You know... if it is the SBEC it is only doing this too me because I was threatening to do away with it. Before the rebuild, I was seriously considering building an older carb engin for it... now it treats me like this lol... Those dam computers. I did try to clean the black pickup in the distributer yesterday with "electric parts cleaner" just to get a little dirt and oil off that it aquired over the past years. Any chance I messed it up? I really really dont/cant aford a computer for it. The engin rebuild took my last nickle.

scotts74birds

You said no power to the coil? How did you check this? Did you test between the pos and neg? Or did you go from the pos to a chassis or battery ground? If you tested from pos to neg of the coil itself then that would not tell you anything. Remember, the neg side of the coil is SWITCHED.

silvermopar

I checked from both sides of the coil to the body and to bare metal on the block. I checked both sides of the coil because I did not know which was positive.

silvermopar

Just a thought though. I cannot remember if I did or did not switch my leads on my tester. As it requres a different plug for testing amp draw which i first used the meter for. Perhaps there was power to the coil, but even so, there was no spark from the coil wire when my dad held a screwdrive tip in the coil lead and the shaft of the screwdrive to a known ground on the body. I will find out more after I get out of school today.