I'm having trouble figuring out why i am not getting any spark to my 360, its got the ecu electronic ignition, i volt tested my coil and with the key on its getting 4.1 volts, battery has 13.6 volts, ballast resistor is getting power as well, but did not test it, just ran a test light to it. it will crank over and crank over and crank over but will not fire, i pulled the wire off the coil and cranked it over and no spark.... what is causing this? could this be a fried ignition module? because thats what im leaning twords thinking it is. i tried a different coil and it still wouldnt start, i ran a jumper wire from positive side of battery to positive side of coil and tried it, still wouldnt start, whats going on here?
no spark
- Thread starter pjc360
- Start date
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67Dart273
Well-Known Member
One thing you have not mentioned is the distributor. What does the pickup / reluctor look like, are they new/ junkyard, etc, and did you set the reluctor gap?
Suspect poor output from the pickup, and suspect a poor connection in the dist. connector. Make sure it feels tight--you can twist the connector and "try fit" one terminal at a time, and work the connector in/ out several times to scrub the terminals clean
Put your meter on low AC volts, hook the meter to the distributor connector, and crank the engine. The distributor pickup should "generate" about 1Volt AC
Also here's something you might try in order to check the ECU. I have NOT tried this, I recently found this. This guy claims you can trigger a Mopar ECU with points. This means you can check the ECU to see if it at least somewhat works, by grounding pin 5 of the ECU
Suspect poor output from the pickup, and suspect a poor connection in the dist. connector. Make sure it feels tight--you can twist the connector and "try fit" one terminal at a time, and work the connector in/ out several times to scrub the terminals clean
Put your meter on low AC volts, hook the meter to the distributor connector, and crank the engine. The distributor pickup should "generate" about 1Volt AC
Also here's something you might try in order to check the ECU. I have NOT tried this, I recently found this. This guy claims you can trigger a Mopar ECU with points. This means you can check the ECU to see if it at least somewhat works, by grounding pin 5 of the ECU
funky thing is, is it was running and running great and all of a sudden wont start, but one thing i forgot to mention, the retard that owned the truck before i got it did not even have the voltage regulator wired up right, when i got it the volt guage was pretty close to pegging at 18 volts, so i got a new voltage regulator hooked it up with an extra ground wire running off of it and eventually the volts were back up high in no time, so i tore into his electrical tape up mess and discovered the blue wire to VR was not wired to anything, so i wired the blue wire to the ecu power wire for a 12v ignition source then the green wire on VR goes staraight back to other field terminal, got that problem corrected yesterday, drove it around yesterday for about a half hour parked it and this morning when i went to start it, it wouldnt start and thats when i discovered there was no spark, so im guessing the overcharging fried that ignition module, is that a possibility? i have 2 spare ignition modules but they are only 4 pin connectors and mine is a 5 pin connector, but i was told the 5th pin was just a ground anyways?
And to answer first person who replied the distributer is in good shape nothing wrong there and yes the gap has been set in the distributer i am 99 percent sure this is not a distributer problem.
And to answer first person who replied the distributer is in good shape nothing wrong there and yes the gap has been set in the distributer i am 99 percent sure this is not a distributer problem.
Didnt mean to sound cocky, it very well could be a distributer problem, but i just really doubht that it is, my old man set the gap on it and did all the work with the distributer for the guy that i got the truck from and he knew his stuff. he passed away last year tho so i cant ask him questions, if he was still alive it'd been running 15 minutes later after he had looked at, he knew this ecu system very very well.
The only thing i can think of going wrong is that with the truck having the overcharging problem for who knows how long i'm thinking it might have messed that ignition module up. can i use a 4 pin connector module with a 5 pin connector plug? i have been reading thru all my mopar books and i cant find any reason that i couldnt, most books say the 5th pin goes no where and some say its a ground?
67Dart273
Well-Known Member
Sure could have yes
If your ECU's actually only have 4 pins, then they are 4 pin.
But not all have 4 pins. Some 4 pin modules have FIVE pins, but are still 4 pin, and of course all 5 pin modules have 5
NO the 5th is not a ground. Here is the difference, and it's worth noting.
A FIVE pin (older) module MUST use a FOUR pin ballast
A FOUR pin module CAN use EITHER 2 or 4 pin ballast
All harness connectors for the ECU are 5 pin. You can wire them either way, but if you wire for a 5 pin module, with a 4 terminal ballast, then you can plug EITHER type module in
You can NOT TELL if a physical 5 pin module is ELECTRICALLY 4 or 5, you must use an ohmeter on the 5th pin to check for continuity
(Since you have 4 pin physically, this is not a concern, just for your info)
Wiring for the 4 and 5 pin ECU:
http://www.mymopar.com/downloads/Ignition_System_4pin.jpg
http://www.mymopar.com/downloads/Ignition_System_5pin.jpg
I would not "assume" the distributor is good. Pickup coils do go bad, and I had one conversation with someone who does a lot of tuneups and he believes that modern pickup coils CAN and DO lose magnetism, as he's replaced "seemingly good" pickup coils to fix a problem
does my distributer have a pick up coil? it's the newer electronic ignition? i guess i just dont know enough about it, but from the sounds of it i better cross my fingers and hope that it's just the module, another thing worth noting, once i corrected the voltage regulator wiring, ( i wired the voltage regulator up exacly as i was shown in a dodge how to draw up on ramchargercentral.com) there is a green wire running from my voltage regulator straight back to one of the field terminals on the altenator, the other wire from the voltage regulator is a blue wire i tied another blue wire into the blue VR wire and ran it to the ecu power wire and used a butt connector to connect them, so my blue wire goes to the ecu power wire then to the voltage regulator and on back to the other field terminal on the altenator this corrcet right?
Anyways after i corrected the problem i noticed that my truck was idling kinda funny when i first started it up compared to how it normally idles, i blamed it on the cold weather but it died once while idling and almost died again and it happened after correcting the voltage regulator wiring mess, is that a symptom of the ignition module going out?
Anyways after i corrected the problem i noticed that my truck was idling kinda funny when i first started it up compared to how it normally idles, i blamed it on the cold weather but it died once while idling and almost died again and it happened after correcting the voltage regulator wiring mess, is that a symptom of the ignition module going out?
another thing that i forgot to add, we pulled the coil off (wich is a brand new borg warner select coil) and tested it and it was good... but i was only getting 4.1 volts to the coil with the key on... this is another reason i suspect the ignition module, ether that or the ballast resistor. i had a spare ballast resistor tested it and it was toast, so im going to test the ballast resistor that i have on there now in the morning, you'd think that if the coil survived the overcharging that the oick up coil would too correct? sorry if i seem stupid i'm just not a whole lot familiar with this set up, it's never givin me any problems before so i have never had to mess with the ignition.
got it figured out, i still need a new ignition module tho, i put my spare gold ignition module on it and it fired right up, i tested the number 4 and number 5 lead to test the pick up coil it had 675 ohms it said if its 150-900 ohms then its ok, tested the number 1 pin the ecu power pin with the key on it was getting 12.5 volts, tested my ballast resistor and it tested good, so then i had a strong feeling it was the ignition module, swapped modules hit the key and it fired right up, thanks for all your help guys, i still need to find out if my ignition module that im using right now is a mopar gold module or a aftermarket module of some kind, like an echlin or borg warner or whatever. i dont wanna run the gold box on my truck, it says thats good for up to 1000rpm and it shouldnt run under 2000 rpm.
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