Hey. I'm really new to working on old cars. I've had this duster for about 9 months. I bought it when it wasn't running and a had a mechanic get it going. Turns out the timing was 180 degrees out. It was running for a few months, and I would take the rotor, a plug wire and the battery with me when I was done driving it because I didn't want it getting stolen. One night, I went to put the rotor and wire and battery back in and it would turn over, but it wouldn't start. It would turn over, but it wouldn't run. Eventually the battery went dead. So then I tried that screwdriver-starter relay trick and got a huge spark and it was like something burned out. From then on, I couldn't even turn it over from the ignition. It was completely dead. So then I replaced the starter relay thinking I had fried that. Still nothing. Had a mechanic come look at it and he could get it to turn over with a handheld push button ignition switch, but the car still wasn't getting spark. He checked some terminals and the coil and the ignition control module and he said something about electricity not being here or there, I don't really know. Also, the previous owner deleted the ballast resistor and I found a few ignition control modules in the trunk that are likely burnt out due to the rewiring of things.
Bottom line is I want to get the car running myself and have no clue what's wrong with it. I'm a little burned out having just installed a clutch and motor mounts on another car, and electricity isn't my strong point. Any help or experience with this specific problem would be appreciated. The wiring harness under the hood is a ******* mess. There are ends of wires hanging around everywhere.
I'll also say that right after I bought it and was trying to get it running myself, I put on some really cheap, but new, plug wires along with new champion plugs that were gapped at .34 or whatever the manual said. The distributor also had some rust in it, so I cleaned it out and put in a new pickup coil. I also replaced the coil, the ignition control module, distributor cap and rotor. Then it still didn't run and I called the mechanic and he just did something and said that the timing was 180 degrees out and it ran like a champ, until that night that I was putting the rotor/wire/battery back in.
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