Mopar electronic ignition

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swedefish

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Helping a friend with his Satelitte. It's a 440 auto. He has a electronic ignition on the motor. It doesn't ignite when cranking the engine.
I've helped him with replacing the electric harnesses both under dash and in the engine bay this winter.
When attaching the timing light to the wire from the coil to the dist it flash.
But nothing when attached to a spark plug wire. He bought and replaced both the rotor and dist cap to no avail.
We got 6V at the coil in run position and 12V at start. Tomorrow we'll check the resistance on the wire between the coil and dist to see if it's okey.
Does any of you guys or girls got an idea of what can cause the problem.
Any help are most appreciated.
Lenny
 
Some timing lights have a pick up that clamps over wire and only works in one direction. flip the pick up over and see if it flashes. If it flashes at the coil wire than the rotor should take it to the other wires. Pull the wire out of the dist cap and put it close to ground and see how far the spark will jump.
 
With the cap off is the distributor turning? Maybe Distributor drive is broke.
 
Thanks guys, we'll have a closer look at the dist and coil wire. I'll also check that I have the clamp in the right direction.
 
Have you checked the reluctor gap in the distributor??? .007" - .008" with a brass feeler gauge....
 
is it set up for SB?
 
Is the ECU box grounded? I mean if its a painted box paint is scrapped away and a good clean screw is mounting it or a dedicated ground strap to the ECU?
 
If he's getting spark out of the coil into Distributor, but not out of distributor, it has to be in Distributor. Whether bad Distributor or rotor, but believe he changed it. Is spark strong enough out of coil? I just had a module go bad but had no spark at all.
 
Thanks guys.
First thing I did was to check voltage at the coil in start and run position 12/6 V. Next was to have a buzzer between the screw for the transistor I beleave on the ECU and the housing of the alternator.
I'm not 100% sure if it's the right way to check for spark with a timinglight on the coil wire though.
Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.
 
What is the resistance of the high tension coil wire? I always start out by checking "right at" the coil tower..........use a grounded clip screwdriver etc and crank engine. Should have a nice hot spark at least 3/8" long and typically 1/2" (about 9--13mm)

Next check the coil wire resistance. The old school rule of thumb for resistance wires used to be 1000 ohms per foot. They are almost always less

Then inspect or even replace the rotor. They can spark "punch through" the insulation,.........inspect carefull inside where the shaft fits for black, holes, damage.

obviously both the cap and rotor should be clean and dry
 
Got the motor to run.
Could've been multipel issues.
#1 wrong firering order, mixed up when replacing dist cap?
#2 no gas?
Seems as the timing light doesn't pick up any induction when cranking with the starter.
Had to start all over with confirming TDC, dampermarks and to check the rotor vs #1 sparkplug wire.
Want to thanks for all replies.
 
Glad you got her running. We all know the frustration of putting something together and having it fail to operate. That's when panic sets in and you can't see the obvious. That's why this site is so great, most guys have been there and done it.
 
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