Mopar Electronic ignition issue

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superstock64polara

superstock64polara

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I'm using a standard single points distributor on my 67 Barracuda 273, it's a Formula S so it's a HiPo 273 4BBL. It runs okay with the points dizzy, but I decided to go electronic with a Mopar electronic distributor and orange box (the box is more than 20 years old and genuine Mopar unit).

The only way I could get the 273 to idle was with 40+ degrees on initial timing, and it didn't run right either. Okay, so I thought it must be the distributor I'm using. To confirm, I borrowed a good distributor from a friend, after installation it does the exact same thing. Have to advance initial timing to 40+ degrees for it to idle.

Damn, so in the end I took out the electronic dizzy and box and put the points unit back in, set the timing at 10 degrees BTDC and she idles and runs fine. Any ideas guys on what's happening with the electronic units?
 
I know you said 20 year old Orange box . I still run my Orange box that I bought in the mid 80's in my Ragtop but they say the Orange boxes are junk now and stay away from them20 years may not be old enough.My 500 Dart I've been running this ignition box with no issues if you don't want to spend a lot.
More Information for STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS LX101
FBO has a nice Rev. limiter Box as well but more $$.
 
Question did you go to a electronic coil also when you did the switch?
 
superstock64polara said:
I'm using a standard single points distributor on my 67 Barracuda 273, it's a Formula S so it's a HiPo 273 4BBL. It runs okay with the points dizzy, but I decided to go electronic with a Mopar electronic distributor and orange box (the box is more than 20 years old and genuine Mopar unit).

The only way I could get the 273 to idle was with 40+ degrees on initial timing, and it didn't run right either. Okay, so I thought it must be the distributor I'm using. To confirm, I borrowed a good distributor from a friend, after installation it does the exact same thing. Have to advance initial timing to 40+ degrees for it to idle.

Damn, so in the end I took out the electronic dizzy and box and put the points unit back in, set the timing at 10 degrees BTDC and she idles and runs fine. Any ideas guys on what's happening with the electronic units?
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It almost sounds like the phasing is off from the two distributor wires being switched.
 
TrailBeast said:
It almost sounds like the phasing is off from the two distributor wires being switched.
Click to expand...


^^THIS^^ Google "rotor phasing." Regardless of the harness wire colors THERE HAS BEEN a couple of times that the factory "stuff" was out of phase

The distributor generates an AC like wave, two pulses, one positive, and one negative. If the magnetic polarity is wrong it will reverse the order of these pulses, IE place the neg one first instead of the positive or vice versa. This triggers the box at the wrong time, causing the spark to be out of time with the rotor position
 
67Dart273 said:
^^THIS^^ Google "rotor phasing." Regardless of the harness wire colors THERE HAS BEEN a couple of times that the factory "stuff" was out of phase

The distributor generates an AC like wave, two pulses, one positive, and one negative. If the magnetic polarity is wrong it will reverse the order of these pulses, IE place the neg one first instead of the positive or vice versa. This triggers the box at the wrong time, causing the spark to be out of time with the rotor position
Click to expand...


Thanks 67Dart273, I'll switch around the wires to the distributor and try it again.
 
I think you need an electronic coil but horefully Halifaxhops will chime in as I'm not 100% sure.
 
A points will work but not as well. Not saying that is it but definitely a possibility.
 
The fact is the car may not "dyno" at top performance, but you can use any mopar stock coil or ballast and the damn thing should run and drive perfectly normally at anything except WFO (wide freekin open)

Having said that, modern replacement parts are always suspect, and "new" does not mean "functional."

(In the case of my EFI conversion, it is a umpteen year old stocker coil mostly done as an experiment to see if I could get away with it.)
 
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