Rapom's Rocket - just another Duster build thread

Sorry for the delay in updating the thread. Been working at a new job and fighting some kind of virus all week so my web time has been severely limited. Yeah I know... Boo-Hoo crybaby.

Let's get on with it... The next thing on the list was changing over to a HEI ignition system from the stock ballast/ignition. Why you ask? Mainly because all my current equipment was quite old and needed to be replaced/upgraded, the engine compartment wiring harness was in sad shape and the generally happy results posted on several member's HEI threads. I consider myself a semi-purist, ie. I believe a Mopar power train should be in a Mopar chassis, Ferd in Ferd, Shovey in Shovey, ect. however I have no issue with mixing and matching other things to achieve a better result, especially if it can be done at a lower cost, over using stock parts. Flame on... your wasting your breath, or, finger tips in this case.

The stock distributor went with the motor donated to my friend's son's project so while perusing the swap meet at MATS I bought a really nice core electronic distributor with the idea of doing a rebuild/recurve for the car. Walking through the vendor isles later that day I came upon the Mancini booth and they had brought with them a handful of brand new distributors, built with all the good parts and a performance curve, for $100 bucks. A C note lighter in the wallet but one less project ahead... well worth it.

The rest of the ignition I had on hand was a questionable stock ballast resistor and a very old but serviceable Orange Box ignition. The coil was missing and most of the harness wires were brittle and cracked at the engine connections where the heat, oil and gas had taken their toll. Wow, lots of little things to fix and replace. That prompted the search for an ignition upgrade. I've had MSD stuff before and while not cheap that was were I was headed until I started reading about the HEI guys were trying out. Many were getting their components out of junk yards for super cheap, right up my ally. After a trip to the local self help yards I had no luck in finding good serviceable parts. They were in sad shape or pulled along with the engine. New parts were purchased thru Summit and Rock Auto for reasonable cost so all was good in the end. I cut the tatty wire wrap off the engine harness and proceeded to strip out the wires for the following: L & R marker lights, L & R fender top indicators, the funky "Fuel Pacer" components & wiring, the seat belt interlock relay (yellow leads spliced), the coil and distributor wires, the altenator wire to the bulkhead and the remaining wiring for the ballast resistor and ignition box. All this was not needed or was going to be replaced/rerouted in the HEI conversion and rewire for the trunk mount battery. I do not recommend the average "Joe" try this without adequate knowledge and ability to trace wiring using schematics in the Factory Service Manuals (FSM's). You could easily leave all this wiring in place, just disconnect and tape/terminate the ends properly. I printed out the complete wiring diagram for the car, taped it together, then spent hours and hours tracing wiring. This was a lot to take on at one time and I have an extensive aircraft maintenance background. Hopefully it works!!

Here are the parts and info for my ignition:
"E" core coil and heat sink mounting bracket, Summit PN ALL81230
Standard Motor Products Ignition Control Module, Rock Auto PN LX301
ACDelco Ignition Control Module Heat Sink, Rock Auto PN 10474510

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