1969 Dart 318 intermittent spark issue

Hey guys,

I am new here and newly returned to the Mopar world. I just purchased a 1969 Dart 318 2bbl. The car was sitting in a garage for 8 years without being used, aside from the occasional round the block trip to circulate the lubricants.

I believe the ignition to be stock. Most of the time the car starts and runs fine. Occasionally the car would die while driving. It would crank, but not start. I found that shaking the wires at the ballast resistor would allow the car to start again. I replaced the ballast resistor. I went a few days of normal everyday driving without issue. I thought the problem was solved. Saturday I drove it to the grocery with no issue. Upon walking out of the store to the car it would not start. I did the usual jiggling of the wires at the ballast resistor to no avail. At this point, I found out my test light was dead as well. Great day. After letting it sit for about 10 minutes, the car started right up. I did NOTHING between the last failed crank and the successful start. Seems to me that this would be a bad ground, or a bad connection somewhere. I have limited basic knowledge, but I really do not know where to begin to troubleshoot this thing. I dont know what should be hot at crank, what should be hot at run... How to isolate the problem when the car is not having the problem.

Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated!

points? electronic ignition? wondering if it has been converted at some point

Tough to diagnose without more details like what ignition it has since sooo many have been changed from points to electronic today.
Not only do your hands moving wires make a difference but temp changes move wires and make changes also. I've seen the wires from coil to distributer wear a tiny opening in their casing and ground to the intake manifold intermitently. So the wire warms up and shorts. when it cools it lifts just enough to open the short.
Thats just one of a long list of possiblie faults.
At this point the ballast resistor and even the ignition switch is suspect. These come and go with temp change too.

Thanks guys. It is still a points ignition.

Could be a bad condenser in the dizzy. I would try a new set of points and a condenser.

Points, "sitting" get corroded, so that's a numbaw Won issue

Somebody mentioned condenser, meaning the condenser/ capacitor in the distributor. IT MUST be in place and "good" to produce spark

Other than that, the usual loose connections, at the bulkhead, ballast, etc.

might be heat soaking the coil. when you drove it a week straight were you just going to work and back? when it does it, is it when you run errands and stop and shut off the car frequently?