IGNITION problemO' :o

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BIG-B-Barracuda

BIG-B-Barracuda

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i referenced rockauto to get the ICM off of an 1973 440 charger because thats the swap that i have in my 1968 barracuda .. and they only have the 4 pin ICM where do i get the 5 pin ICM? do i have an icorrect ICM?
 
darn, this thing is failing me..... (photo bucket)

i have an ignition issue... 1968 barracuda
with a 1973 dodge charger 440
from photos i tried to upload its a 5 pin edu and I'm missing the green wire not the turquyes but the dark green completely ripped. what is this wire? this is my daily driver and this has never been an issue. do i need a new connector?

anyways...shes been sitting for a bout a month longer actually. i just finished up doing the front and rear suspension. and she has all the power but not getting any spark it seems. distributor is good and new cap and rotor swell as plugs and wires. is the ecu an issue or? coil?

another issue. just started just now. every time i turn the key negative battery terminal sparks and cuts power... i move battery cables and lights come back on. . . just to do it again....

okay moved around the cable now its turning over again. but doesn't seem to be getting any spark,,,,

this is tiring... I'm trying to upload photos for you guys but its coming up blank!? ah what thehlkfldffgjfghvhfg
 
What did you do with the Brown/start wire? The coil + usually receives battery voltage from the ignition switch during cranking only, from the brown wire. the way your diagram shows it the coil never receives full battery voltage. Cant say thats your problem, but......
If you have a 5pin ECU, then all 5 pins need to have wires on them. A 4pin ECU plugs in directly, with no mods required to the 5pin wiring harness.
The dark green wire powers up the 5pinECU. It cant run without it. Nor can it run without having the case properly grounded. And loose or corroded battery terminals is just plane laziness.
You can prove that the ECU is alive by: Take the coil wire out of the cap and clamp the wire to something grounded, such that the conductor wire is about .25 inch from the grounded surface. Make sure that there is/are no flammables in the immediate area. Then have a helper turn the ignition key to RUN, and then OFF.If the ECU is alive it will command exactly one spark every time you cycle the key.It sparks when you turn the key OFF.If it passes that test:next have the helper crank the engine for a couple of seconds. A stream of sparks will issue forth, during cranking.If it fails the first test, it will fail the second as well.The first test proves the wiring and ECU. The second proves the magnetic trigger in the dizzy. After that its just cap and rotor. Oh, wait. I forgot the coil test.
Coil test;These old coils just need 2 things, like most electrics. 1) power, and 2) a ground. The power is right there at the coil plus. Or is it? Prove its there. Then you just have to switch the ground side(thats the - side). Disconnect the wire thats on there now, and hook up a 3 foot or so jumper wire on it instead.Hook up the coil high tension wire as before with the .25 spark-gap. Now with the coil powered up, from the ignition switch turned on, you will do the switching with the jumper wire.For newbies this may require a bit of practice. Just strike it against a good ground.You need to be fast. Just touch the wire to ground and immediately un-touch. This will produce one spark each time you strike/release it. What I find works really well, is to take a long coarse file, ground one end and then just drag the jumper wire along it. This produces a stream of sparks. Ok anything I missed? Oh yeah, get a wiring diagram if you cant make it work.I mean a full wiring diagram, for your body style. And another for the 71 up ignition system. So you can prove the last guy wired it up right.
 
my appoligies that diagram was the only one i could find with 5 pin ecu.

i looked up rockauto for a 1973 440 charger and they are all 4 pin ecu... what am i missing?
a 4 pin ecu?
sorry guys this new forum i started is all over the place. let me
 
AJ/FormS said:
What did you do with the Brown/start wire? The coil + usually receives battery voltage from the ignition switch during cranking only, from the brown wire. the way your diagram shows it the coil never receives full battery voltage. Cant say thats your problem, but......
If you have a 5pin ECU, then all 5 pins need to have wires on them. A 4pin ECU plugs in directly, with no mods required to the 5pin wiring harness.
The dark green wire powers up the 5pinECU. It cant run without it. Nor can it run without having the case properly grounded. And loose or corroded battery terminals is just plane laziness.
You can prove that the ECU is alive by: Take the coil wire out of the cap and clamp the wire to something grounded, such that the conductor wire is about .25 inch from the grounded surface. Make sure that there is/are no flammables in the immediate area. Then have a helper turn the ignition key to RUN, and then OFF.If the ECU is alive it will command exactly one spark every time you cycle the key.If it passes that test:next have the helper crank the engine for a couple of seconds. A stream of sparks will issue forth.If it fails the first test, it will fail the second as well.The first test proves the wiring and ECU. The second proves the magnetic trigger in the dizzy. After that its just cap and rotor. Oh, wait. I forgot the coil test.
Coil test;These old coils just need 2 things, like most electrics. 1) power, and 2) a ground. The power is right there at the coil plus. Or is it? Prove its there. Then you just have to switch the ground side. Disconnect the wire thats on there now, and hook up a 3 foot or so jumper wire on it instead.Hook up the coil high tension wire as before with the .25 spark-gap. Now with the coil powered up you will do the switching with the jumper wire.For newbies this may require a bit of practice. Just strike it against a good ground.You need to be fast. Just touch the wire to ground and immediately un-touch. This will produce one spark each time you strike it. What I find works really well, is to take a long coarse file, ground one end and then just drag the jumper wire along it. This produces a stream of sparks. Ok anything I missed? Oh yeah, get a wiring diagram if you cant make it work.I mean a full wiring diagram, for your body style. And another for the 71 up ignition system. So you can prove the last guy wired it up right.
Click to expand...

1.) i will check for spark - i will take the coil off of the center of the distributor cap and hold it close to car frame and turn key to see if it produces a spark... single spark single turn... hold key on to check for multiple sparks.... check! so is this works and produces sparks it means wiring and ecu are okay? and multiple sparks means magnetic trigger is okay?

2.) and if it passes spark it proves that wiring is good and ecu is good and magnetic trigger is good only leaving the cap and rotor as the suspect...? correct ... ?

3.) the coil test do i disconnect the positive or negative? to check for spark?
:cheers:
 
here are all the 5 pin ecu B.prints ive found first two are the same the third #12 is way different.. #5 pin goes to distributo or ballast resistor?
 
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mine missing wire but has always ran good.... until now .. my cap and rotor went bad? or bad ground somewhere all of a sudden.. or dizzy is bad... icm is bad? i will go home and check for spark/
 
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i have a 5 pin ICM and rock auto references 4 pin ICM for 1973 440 charger.. so i have the motor but different ignition wiring? whats going on here?

should i switch to a 4 pin ICM? i have the ballast resistor from a 5 pin icm...

advice?

rock auto has 5 pin icm from a motor home it looks like .... would this work on my car? or should i get more specific than 5 pin to 4 pin?
 
Many posts on the ECU's. Most replacement ECU's do not use the 5th pin. When there is a 5th pin, it is often a dummy (to not worry owners). The 5th pin goes to the 2nd ballast (5 ohm). They had to reduce the 12 V supply in those days to protect the transistor, but not needed for modern electronic parts. So you probably no longer need the 2nd ballast either.
 
okay so i should make sure what ever is there now should be in the .5 ohms and not in the 5 ohms. . . ? what would i experience if it was swamped other way around?
 
Reread post 10. Fix the green wire and you can run either ECU. Also make sure the Brown wire is hooked up.
You can run either 5pin or 4 pin in the dual ballast wiring harness.
But you can only run 4pinECUs in the single ballast harness.
And since you cannot always ID a 4pin by the pin count, just fix the green wire and plug in what you got. The brown wire supplies full battery voltage to the coil during cranking for a better light off.Sometimes the battery voltage might fall to 10.5 or less during cranking. Having full battery voltage available to the coil makes it more likely that the engine can start at these times.
If you have more than one ECU, You can test them as in post 10 and the one(s) that work without the green wire are the 4 pinners.Mark them so, to avoid confusion at a later date.Plz reread my earlier post; #10
 
faulty - ignition coil wire.....& lose battery terminals not the connection itself but the wires to the terminals.... thanks guys. easy fix.
 
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