No start, wire on coil

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Michael James Adams

Michael James Adams

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Morning Ya'll
So after removing my coil to upgrade and to reroute my fuel lines on my 74 valiant slant six I have a no start condition. Cranks all day however I'm pretty sure I gomer pyled the coil. So a wire similiar to the diagram broke from the coil, do I actually need it? 2nd question is the wires that come from the harness go to the negative correct? Meaning without the wire going to this wire contraption nothing is run off the positive of the coil?

xcvbx.jpg
 
Ah thank you! I was going crazy thinking I had to have something run off of it. Also means relocating the coil is way easier then expected.
 
Wire from cars harness on + side of coil. Wire to distributer on - side of coil. Without the capacitor you may hear ignition noise in radio speaker.
 
The positive side of the coil needs 12 volts and the negitive side of the coil goes to the dist / points for ground.

Typically the wires in the harness are the positive wires, some cases like map lights etc are ground wires

The basic path it ignition switch to ballast resister to positive coil. There is another path while cranking which is ignition switch to coil positive.(bi-passing) the ballast resister.
 
RedFish said:
Wire from cars harness on + side of coil. Wire to distributer on - side of coil. Without the capacitor you may hear ignition noise in radio speaker.
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Well I'll double check to make sure I didn't miss a wire I suppose but it seems like I'm only messing with three wires, two from the wiring harness and one going to the capacitor.
 
Typically the negitive side of the coil is not in a wiring harness, it goes direct to dist.

You need to get a wiring diagram.

This is for 67 dart. But will be close.
16079604974293650283417060050456.jpg

The greenish wire off the negative coil is for optional tach
 
Dana67Dart said:
Typically the negitive side of the coil is not in a wiring harness, it goes direct to dist.

You need to get a wiring diagram.

This is for 67 dart. But will be close.View attachment 1715648944
The greenish wire off the negative coil is for optional tach
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Seems to be similar to the one I have, I'll check after work, was in a bustle this morning when the car wouldn't start so maybe didn't look throughly enough. I am almost certain from memory that its only three wires though. Is it possible the wire from the capacitor also wired something else?
 
Michael James Adams said:
Is it possible the wire from the capacitor also wired something else
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You should be able to see the cap and it's wire from terminal to cap. It should not be integrated into a harness.

Does your car have points or electronic ignition?
 
Michael James Adams said:
Electronic, believe its the OEM equipment still
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THIS. I don't know how you could have screwed this up, unless you hooked both primary coil wires to the same terminal. There should be two coil wires from the harness (from the electronics) I believe one is black or at least dark. That goes to NEG side of coil, but it will run either way. Remaining wire goes to POS side of coil.

Capacitor wire as noted is for radio and engine will run without that as well. You really should have that on there (POS side of coil) as it also supresses noise that can get back into the electronic ignition.

NOTE THAT THERE IS NO guarantee that a new part is "good"
 
DISTRIBUTOR On electronic ignition there is a two wire rubber connector that connects the dist magnetic pickup to the harness (and to the electronics) Maybe you bumped that loose. Find it pull it loose, examine with light for corrosion, and work in/out several times to "scrub" the terminals clean. There is only a tiny current through there, so a bit of corrosion will cause that connection to fail.

DO YOU HAVE a test light, a multimeter, and some alligator clamp jumper wires?

DO YOU HAVE a factory shop manual? If not you need to get one

Also go to mymopar and download the aftermarket wiring diagrams, while these are easier to follow they are not fully detailed
 
67Dart273 said:
THIS. I don't know how you could have screwed this up, unless you hooked both primary coil wires to the same terminal. There should be two coil wires from the harness (from the electronics) I believe one is black or at least dark. That goes to NEG side of coil, but it will run either way. Remaining wire goes to POS side of coil.

Capacitor wire as noted is for radio and engine will run without that as well. You really should have that on there (POS side of coil) as it also supresses noise that can get back into the electronic ignition.

NOTE THAT THERE IS NO guarantee that a new part is "good"
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Oh I wouldn't be surprised if I did, after two hours to change a starter in my girls 2017 chevy sonic I was already a couple beers in and frustrated hahaha. So its possible my memory is wrong and two wires were on the negative and one on the positive. I'll have to follow them and see, from memory which again isn't great its one green dark wire, the other yellow? I'll double check
 
A FEW OTHER rants and raves

Because you have a 74, it is undoubtedly equipped with the much hated "seat belt interlock." This is a small box under the hood, on/ near the left fender apron. It has a reset button, and under certain condtions will "trip" and disable the starter. That box has two yellowish wires going to the connector.........splice them together permanently

No spark..........Check at coil+ with key "in run". You should have somewhere around 6-10V but not much more. If you have "full battery voltage" that means the system is not drawing current. If you have zero, you may have a broken ballast resistor.

To check spark, "rig" a (prefer solid core wire) out of coil, to a spark gap and prop it up so you can see it through the hood gap. Crank the engine USING THE KEY. You should get nice snappy sparks about 3/8" or longer

Also, with key "in run" you can disconnect the distributor connector and take the non-distributor end in hand. Tap the bare end of that connector to ground, and this should produce one single "snap" spark each time.

DO NOT leave the key "on" an longer than you need to perform these tests
 
To jump in for a sec - yeh I made a pun. I just finished up this 70' and had the ENTIRE front end harness out of the car during restoration. I've been a GM guy for a long time / but always wanted to own one of these. So to the point lol. I inspected and made repairs to sketchy looking stuff and retaped. Everything back in and ready for first start..nothing..battery up and fed by charger. The car had / still has the common Mopar Orange box ecm and an upgraded electronic pick up distributer (No Points) and a ballast resister. We replaced both batt cable ends at batt / made sure the block was grounded at firewall / neg cable contacting bare iron on block front and rear and grounded neg cable to scraped to bare metal radiator support connection. I should mention we " gutted the column shift parts from the column " replaced the main ignition switch/harness and installed a floor shifter. We now had an engine that turned over but would not fire. We found that the ballast resister was not getting keyed on power to one side / we traced and found a wire to splice in. We ALSO discovered that this particular build did not like having the " 3 pin " transmission plug ( neutral/reverse ) plugged in and by accident with the key in ON position with the trans plug on it would turn over the engine if it the floor shifter was shifted...yikes!!!. So...with the wires correctly on the coil ( no condenser ) as stated above in another reply and the ballast resister happy it began to fire !. We played hell getting the distributer set in correctly to allow the base to be rotated without the vac can running into the intake. Happy to report it starts right up now..but have found thats not always a safe bet & I think its because of the new ( colored ) battery cable ends not completly "worn in" and I keep a 1/2" wrench and a flat blade screwdriver with me at all times. And yes that trans plug is staying unplugged for now. I just make sure its in park before I twist the key.
 
You should start a separate thread. No reason at all you cannot fix the neutral safety switch.
 
67Dart273 said:
DISTRIBUTOR On electronic ignition there is a two wire rubber connector that connects the dist magnetic pickup to the harness (and to the electronics) Maybe you bumped that loose. Find it pull it loose, examine with light for corrosion, and work in/out several times to "scrub" the terminals clean. There is only a tiny current through there, so a bit of corrosion will cause that connection to fail.

DO YOU HAVE a test light, a multimeter, and some alligator clamp jumper wires?

DO YOU HAVE a factory shop manual? If not you need to get one

Also go to mymopar and download the aftermarket wiring diagrams, while these are easier to follow they are not fully detailed
Click to expand...
Yep put cables on properly and fired up, full blown moment on my behalf but lord thank you gentleman so much!!
 
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