I wanted to peel out today, but this dang car failed me again. This car seems like a prom queen that is a lousy lover. It looks good but lets me down too often.
I went out to start it up this afternoon and it wouldnt start up. To RECAP: After I got the motor in and everything in place, I had NO spark to the plugs. More specifically, I only tested #1 with the plug wire disconnected from the plug at the motor. I put a used spark plug in the wire and looked for spark as I spun the motor. This seems to happen almost every time that I have put in a new motor or cam. I go to start a fresh mill and I get no spark. This time I took a test light and went over 2 other electronic ignition cars to see where power should be with the key in the RUN position, then compared it to the Charger. Everything checked out with the wiring, so I started testing parts. The ECM was bad so I swapped in another one. Still NO spark. I put in another distributor, still no spark. I walked away and came back a little while later. It had spark now but wouldn't start up. The battery was weak so I charged it for 2 hours and put it back in. It fired up on 3 revolutions and ran great!
I went out to drive it today and it was back to the same old problem. For some crazy reason the car chooses when to run. I have a hard time believing that 2 different distributors can be acting up in the same way... spark, then NO spark. The battery has a full charge. I had a pal help out. He is pretty sharp with electrical systems and even HE is stumped. This is my big weakness: electrical problems. We took the wiring apart at the bulkhead and cleaned all of the terminals. Still it wont run. As usual, the spark is there sometimes and other times it isnt. What the heck is going on?
I'm going to test the distributors on another vehicle tomorrow. If they both work fine I'll have to figure that there is a problem in my wiring. I have already put in a new MSD coil and ballast, a good ECM and a new distributor cap. Just for grins I also tried another ignition switch, thinking that there might be a faulty wire in the steering column. It didnt help. Can YOU ?