Dodge Dart Sport

1973 Dodge Dart Sport Ignition System   

My '73 340 Dart Sport ran fine Saturday. Sunday, it would not start. There appears to be no fire at the plugs. To date, I have changed out (with new parts)the rotor (cap was fairly new), plug wires, coil, ECU (Orange), ballast resistor and voltage regulator and still it won't start. I should mention that the car did start one time this week. I had just got it started and was distracted by a phone call for about 10 min. I left the car idling and when I came back it had cut off and now won't start for 3 days. The Battery appears good as does the starter. Just no fire at the plugs. I'm stumped. I have a new pickup coil but have been reluctant to tear into the distributor unless necessary. I seem to have an intermittant Gremlin that is evading me!

Use an ohm meter and compare the reading of your new pick up coil to your old one. If the old one is open or shorted, it is obviously bad.

Make sure you have battery positive to the igntion coil + terminal (one end of test light or DC voltmeter [DVOM]) and the other to known good ground.

The new pick up coil, in the box, measures .285 ohms on the 2k scale. The one in the car, disconnected and with the cap and rotor off, measured 0. With the key off, I measure 0v at the + terminal on the coil using the 20vdc scale. With the key in the on position, I measure 5vdc. Across the battery terminals I measure 12.75vdc. I turned the motor over several times and it seemed to try to "catch" once but never did. Double checked fuel pump and it's putting out plenty of gas.

I think you helped me fix a starter problem about this time last year. I look forward to figuring this one out and getting the old Mopar back on the road!

Thanks, Bob

Is there a resistor at the coil, possibly it is resisting to much (or perhaps on the firewall).

0, I'm not sure if you mean full continuity (which is shorted) or no continuity (which is open)-- but both are no good.

If it is shorted, I'm curious if this may cause the voltage drop at the coil. Try unplugging the sensor if and see if voltage at the coil increases.

You are lucky to have such a fun ride. The starter problem, hmmm, what vehicle was this on?

I'm going with no continuity as the reading was the same as is I was just holding the probes in open air. I guess I should go ahead this weekend and change the pickup coil and go from there. Are there any "gotchas" I should know about in changing it? The voltage is the same at the coil with the pickup plugged or unplugged. I haven't measured it when cranking yet but will do that.

The alternator was on a 1994 Mitsubishi Gallant.

No resistor at the coil. The only one I see is the ballast resistor (new).

Sorry...I think you helped me with an electrical problem on a 1996 Ford Ranger not the Mitsubishi!

I will see if I have an old manual around with the information you need.

I have an old shop manual but the ignition circuit is mixed in with the general wiring diagram and very hard to follow. It does look like a bad ignition switch could cause problems with getting current to the coil. Does that make any sense?

Changed out the pickup coil today. No Change. Prior to change out...got it to fire off today after eseating every connection I could find under the hood. Ran it about 10 mins. Turned it off and won't start again.
Maddening!!!!!

Time to go back to the coil voltage. Unless this engine somehow got a 6 volt coil, 5 volts is to low. Somewhere on the path the voltage is being cut to low.

Put the brand new coil on and no change. Got mad so I then went under the hood and dash and unplugged and replugged every connection. If there was any doubt, I wire brushed the connection until shiny. I then did the same with screw connections. Then I replaced two sections of suspect ground wires with new wire soldered and heat shrinked. EUREKA!!!! Can't say which connection but it must have been one of them becaus it ROARED to life and is running like a top. I've been wiggling connections while it's running to see if I can duplicate the shutdown but so far....it's running OK. I still wish I knew exactly what it was.......

I appreciate your help. Let me know what I owe you and how to get it to you.

Bob