Mystery Ignition Box

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Chained_360

Chained_360

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Howdy everyone and happy Sunday! I have a problem I need help sleuthing out on my '68 Barracuda. Ever since I've owned the car, I've known it has electronic ignition because I went to replace the points and condenser when I bought it, and well, it didn't have any. It had a magnetic pickup instead. Now, there's a small wiring harness that runs to a mysterious, silvery-blue metal box that's mounted on the passenger inner fender. It's scratched to hell and I have never been able to pull any identifying information off it. I was wondering if maybe any of you wonderful people could help me identify what it is? I would like to purchase a second one to have as a spare for the car, but I'm worried that I won't be able to find one... it looks quite old. Any luck?

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I apologize for the picture quality, I never took a closeup of it. I may be able to get my dad to send me one later this week if he has time.
 
Just a wild guess here. Wondering if it is an earlier Ford Electronic Ignition Brain Box like from late '70s that someone wired into your mopar to do the Electronic conversion.

Looks like it has some type of factory "Plug" on it from the previous vehicle it came out of.

Something like this '74 Ford F-150 brain box, but not quite:

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Can always wire it over to True Mopar Electronic Ignition, I see you already have the ballast resistor inline over by the master brake cylinder.

You probably already have the mopar electronic distributor in now already too. Probably just need to wire in the Mopar Brain Box and pigtail from the kit.

Then you will know what you got and can easily service it.

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Or early Jacobson system. Need a picture of the pickup assembly.

Jacobson was a company the specialized in electronic ignition systems and parts for gas engines back in the late 80’s. High tech stuff for it’s time.
 
Defiantly could be that. Been a long time friend had one it was in a cast box and kind of finned if I remember but it was a early one.

Can you get a better picture of the control unit?
 
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Rather than worrying about having a spare, why not return it back to stock points?

Or buy a points dist and keep that as a spair in the trunk. Pull cap note location of rotor, unbolt dist hold down, disconnect wire from neg coil, jumper from ballast to coil if it does not already go there. Install point dist noting rotor direction, Attach point dist wire to neg coil. Fire it up. You might need to time it by ear if you did not bring a light with you.
 
I wonder if you take it off and look underneath if it will have some info there like an MSD box does. If you change to a Mopar type go with a FBO box conversion. I just put one on my 67 and it is fantastic. Has a rev limiter and made in Oregon. I changed from an orange box to this and the difference is significant in the quality of acceleration and idle.
 
I appreciate all of the input and advice, I'm having my dad take some photos of the underside of the box tonight to see if there's any identifying marks (the car doesn't live where I do currently). For the ignition backup, I found a brand new single point distributor for $40... I didn't realize how easy they are to wire up, but seeing as it's literally one wire to the negative on the coil, I feel pretty comfortable making that "repair" should it be necessary :D
 
If you use the points distributor, insure the ballast resistor is still wired in to reduce the coil current in normal running. That is the small white ceramic on the far left firewall (driver's side). Without it, your coil will get very hot. Some electronic conversions bypass the ballast (for stronger spark). Most electronic conversions in the 1980's were sold in the J.C. Whitney catalog. I bought a Crane Cams XR700 there. They had several choices for Mopar, but I don't recall any looked like your box, so likely it was a retro-fit from another manufacturer. If you later want electronic ignition, easiest (and even cheapest) is the $40 Ningbo "ready-to-run" distributor on ebay (Steve White Performance and others), but also need a $20 e-core coil for best spark. Another choice is a 1970's Mopar e-distributor triggering a GM 8-pin HEI module (many posts).
 
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