Another non starting, headscratcher

[mopar head]

All of a sudden my car won`t start, It usually fires right off. Fourtunetly It died in my shop. 67 cuda. MP electronic conversion. meter says, 12.5 v. @ battery, 11 v. @ ballast? no spark @ plug. I cleaned all connections @ battery,relay,+ ballast. all grounds are clean and tight. Im particular with connections, bare metal, protected with high copper never sieze. Think my ballast is bad? It has continuity, and reads 200.1 ohms. Does this sound right? Battery is old but still showing good. To take it out of the picture, I installed a newer battery with same results. It spins over, fast as it ever has. still 11 v.@ ballast. If you suggest a new ballast resistor, can I use one from a, lets say early mopar with elect. ign.? Thanks in advance

 

[dodge-guy]

It may be your neutral switch...if you have one. I have a Dart and I had NOTHING at the turn of my key in the ignition. Turns out I didn't have reverse lights and replaced the neutral switch. Car starts up all the time now!

 

[63dartman]

you could jumper the ballast just to see if it runs. Are you checking the voltage in the start and run positions? Good luck.

 

[Snake]

Check your controll box it has to be grounded to work,could be loose.problim with electorial could be anything.

 

[mopar head]

Im only checking voltage in run position. I`ll try bypassing ballast tomorrow. Good tip, That should definetly tell me if ballast is bad. thanks dartman. Snake, box is tight and connection precautions were taken as stated when mounted. I`ll take off to insure thats still the case. No neutral SS. I`ll post the outcome. Thanks

 

[mopar head]

No luck, tried new ballast. Still not getting 12v @ ballast. Tried disconnecting connectors and cleaned @ bulkhead, worse than I expected, reasembled, and still 11 v @ ballast. wtf,, help,, any other suggestions?

 

[monnkyman1]

hi do you have fire at the coil?

 

[mopar head]

hi do you have fire at the coil?

I have a reading of 11v @ coil. just went out to check spark off tower wire of coil. Nothing. ??

 

[swedefish]

Did you do conversion to the MP electronic system yourself?
If so do you still got the old dist with pointers in your shop.
I would try with the old one to see what happends.

 

[mopar head]

I decided to take my 5 yr. old battery in for a load test, man says marginal but still cranking 680 amps. So being the tight wad that I am, I decided to hold off purchess of new battery, till a little later, since it`s safe to say it`s out of the equasion. He spoke of coil ground and all the other things it could be, so home I go and check the mounting bolts of coil. Tight, damn, out of the blue I grabbed the coil and shook it, it moved slightly, hummm, Come to find out a mounting bolt bottomed out with a 1/16 to spare, the other was good. So I shortened bolt, brushed mounting points and bracket, reinstalled. Hit my remote starter, veroom!!!!:cheers: Thank goodness it was`nt in the harness. I tested voltage while running @ ballast still 11v, but with slightest rev it jumps to 14v wtf? I give up thinking about it, it hurts my brain lol. 2 days of cleaning terminals and studying schematics, and it was a stinking coil ground:-D