Getting a '73 Swinger Back on the Road
The next problem I dealt with was, after the 4 barrel swap, it wouldn’t rev over 4000 rpm. It was like that with the 2bbl, but I figured it was starving for fuel. Nope. When the previous owner rebuilt the engine, he kept the rotators that were on the exhaust valves (it was an 80’s truck engine). My thinking here was that it was having an issue with valve float, so I put better valve springs and retainers on it, but again that didn’t fix the problem. Here’s a thread I started asking for help in that issue.
noob valve spring question
What did fix it was changing the ignition over to an HEI setup. In the process I checked out the bulkhead connectors and after a quick cleanup, they were in good shape
One problem I did find was the engine harness connector had a pretty badly burned up terminal
The rest of the connector and terminals looked fine, so I moved that wire over to a pair of bullet style terminals
On my last trip t the junkyard I found an HEI module, an E-coil, and the integrated bracket
For the swap there’s a small amount of wiring that needs to be done. The dark blue and brown wires from the underhood harness get spliced together
This is where I decided to mount the components. Oh, and I found out that 5-pin style module won’t work, so I had to go an buy a 4-pin type
Everything worked great. The car started quicker and even seemed to idle a little smother. What really made me happy is that it would no longer start to breakup at 4000 rpm.
I drove it like this through the spring and summer of last year and one day about a mile from home it shutoff. I coasted into a parking lot and diagnosed a no spark condition. Stupid NAPA module was dead. I’m not sure if it was just a low quality part or if the heat from the headers did it in. I relocated the heat sink over to the driver’s side fender and left the coil near the original location. It’s been good so far but now I keep a spare module in the glove box just in case.
The next problem I dealt with was, after the 4 barrel swap, it wouldn’t rev over 4000 rpm. It was like that with the 2bbl, but I figured it was starving for fuel. Nope. When the previous owner rebuilt the engine, he kept the rotators that were on the exhaust valves (it was an 80’s truck engine). My thinking here was that it was having an issue with valve float, so I put better valve springs and retainers on it, but again that didn’t fix the problem. Here’s a thread I started asking for help in that issue.
noob valve spring question
What did fix it was changing the ignition over to an HEI setup. In the process I checked out the bulkhead connectors and after a quick cleanup, they were in good shape
One problem I did find was the engine harness connector had a pretty badly burned up terminal
The rest of the connector and terminals looked fine, so I moved that wire over to a pair of bullet style terminals
On my last trip t the junkyard I found an HEI module, an E-coil, and the integrated bracket
For the swap there’s a small amount of wiring that needs to be done. The dark blue and brown wires from the underhood harness get spliced together
This is where I decided to mount the components. Oh, and I found out that 5-pin style module won’t work, so I had to go an buy a 4-pin type
Everything worked great. The car started quicker and even seemed to idle a little smother. What really made me happy is that it would no longer start to breakup at 4000 rpm.
I drove it like this through the spring and summer of last year and one day about a mile from home it shutoff. I coasted into a parking lot and diagnosed a no spark condition. Stupid NAPA module was dead. I’m not sure if it was just a low quality part or if the heat from the headers did it in. I relocated the heat sink over to the driver’s side fender and left the coil near the original location. It’s been good so far but now I keep a spare module in the glove box just in case.
