Ignition problem I think?

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pest1688

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Hi I have a 1970 Dodge Swinger with a 318 & new Holley 650. This is a strange problem I'm haveing here and I hope one of you can help me with it. After the car has warmed up It will stall. It will only do this when I'm idleing at a light or when I'm comeing to a stop but it only seems to do it once. It has never done it while accelerating of while driveing. it will not start again for about 30 to 40 seconds then it seems fine. Then the next day it will do it again and so on through the week. I dont have time to check for spark because the problem will fix itself before i can check it Wierd hu. I have a new MSD Box & coil. I tested the ignition wire that turns on the box as soon as this happens to see if maybe it was turning the box off and it's fine. I don't think it's fuel because when it stalled in my driveway I check the carb for fuel flow and it sprayed fuel. It's not bogging out it shuts off like I've turned off the key. i thought maybe a bad coil tryed another one same thing. I noticed that one of my spark plug wires is sliced down to the center of the wire close to the headers can spark be jumping over to the headers and shorting something out? The distributor is the only part that's not brand new for ignition system. Could the distributor be causeing this? This problem began with my old electronic ignition that's why i put in the MSD. All the elictric seems fine when this happens all lights work car cranks over fine and when the car runs it runs very strong & beautifuly. Any idea thank you. JIM 8)
 
It was doing this with the old carb on it too. When it did it today I qiuckly checked for spark and there was no spark when about 5 min went by it started right up It's a new coil MSD new ignition box MSD. Do you think it's the distributor or a defective MSD box? when I first cranked it after it happened it started to spark and it almost started then the spark died off and car would not start.
 
The very first thing I'd do---because you said the problem existed with the old ignition--is rig up whatever clip lead you need to run the ignition right from the battery. Be sure not to bypass any ignition resistors---I'm not familiar with all the MSD stuff.

If the system DOES use a resistor, assume it might be flakey
 
Were did you mount the MSD box? Does it get lots of cold air or hot engine air? Some electronics fail/shut down when they get too hot. Any ignition cable that has any damage (cuts or hard areas or rubbed areas) needs to be replaced.
 
slant6/4speed said:
Were did you mount the MSD box? Does it get lots of cold air or hot engine air? Some electronics fail/shut down when they get too hot. Any ignition cable that has any damage (cuts or hard areas or rubbed areas) needs to be replaced.
Click to expand...

AND THIS


What SPECIFIC MSD system do you have?
 
Well I figured it out the MSD box is faulty. It goes on and off. I checked the ignition wire that turns it on and off with mt test light and it stays lite when the box is off. So it has to be the box right.
 
Don't know about the MSD box but mine was acting weird when the coil was on it's way
out - my fault, when I moved the ignition box I rewired it and bypassed the ballast resistor thus frying the coil in a few weeks. It was acting very strangely on it's way out.
 
Yeah changeing the pick up seemes like a good idea so i just replaced the whole distributor and the problem still exsisted it even seemed to get worse. That distributor was old and cheap looking I was going to replace it any way. Msd box is on it's way back to dealer for exchange. Could the pick up be why my old ignition system went as well? I dont think it's the coil because i have two of them new and switched them and the same problem exsisted so I think I can rule that out right? So it has to be the box right? Thank you guy's for all your input and help I really am greatfull
 
and this is the reason I picked up an old dual point distributor(factory) for $11 on Ebay
a few weeks ago. When in doubt go back to old school with ballast resisitor,points and coil, running power directly from battery to ballast. Eliminates the wondering if your
electronic ignition is working properly or not.
 
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