Having a strange problem with the 440 in my Charger. Yesterday I replaced the distributor. The Mallory Unilite ate itself up from the inside out so I replaced it with a trusty Mopar Performance (magnetic trigger) distributor. It cranked and fired fine. However, after shutting it off to prepare for timing the engine with the new distributor, the engine wouldn't fire again.

When I crank the engine, it sounds like 1 or 2 cylinders cause the starter to labor severely (like the starter can barely spin the engine). However, the starter does eventually spin the engine.

How can the engine run fine one minute and the next minute there seem to be 1 or 2 cylinders that cause interference when the engine is spun over?

I can't run the starter too long without the positive and negative battery cables getting hot to the touch (trunk mounted battery). I've reinstalled the negative battery cable by attaching it directly to the frame. I've also replaced the starter and this problem still persists.

Any ideas? Hurricane Ike appears to be heading to Houston so I might lose the Charger altogether if I can't drive it out of harms way.

starter EDIT whoops I reread the post(more slowly this time). not the starter.

Any chance there's moisture in the distributor cap??

Replace the cap and rotor. Sounds like there is a crack causing a crossfire.

Sounds like the timing it way too high.Move the distributor back towards the firewall a little bit until she starts,then set your timing.
Double check your plug wires at the cap.Did you switch the cap along with the distibutor? It may be possible to be of by one plug wire.
But I am not there.
If you really need to move the car to safe shelter,tow it outa there.

Sorry, stupid question: How would the distributor cause the engine to labor when spinning?

I'm not sure why the car started fine the first time, but wouldn't start at all the second time. I didn't touch the distributor.

You may have a fried module in the distributor causing it act like the timing is too advanced. If that's the case you'll need a different distributor or a replacement module. You may also want to check your ballast resistor to see if it's still good. You should have 12 volts on the switch side and about 9.5 on the coil side if it's the stock ballast resistor. I would bet it's a problem with your distributor advancing the timing too much though.

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Sorry, stupid question: How would the distributor cause the engine to labor when spinning?

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Because you have a crossfire. You are firing a cylinder way before it get to the top causing the motor to kick back and basicly seem to stop cranking for a split second.

Does it crank good after it has sat and cooled down ?
If so, sounds like timing retarded to much.
Also check the ground from the engine to the frame.

Thanks for the replies!

The distributor cap and rotor are new. I'll start by retarding the timing and then go from there.

BTW, will this problem cause any engine damage I should be aware of?

TIming too far advanced means the mixture can fire when the piston is in the wrong part of it's travel, and the engine wont turn. Grab the dist and turn it clockwise about 1/4. It should start for you. Dont forget to plug the vacuum can line to the carb.

Sounds to me like the timing is way off.

If you didn't bolt the distibutor down it can walk a little and not restart.

Here is my failsafe way to start any mopar(car).

1. Set the crank to 0 degrees on the timing mark.

2. Locate the number one spark plug wire and see if the rotor in the distributor is pointing at it or to the #6 wire. If not rotate it to point at the closest one (#1 or #6)

Note: Distributors rotate at 1/2 crank speed so it can be at 0 Degrees on the #1 compression stroke or the #6 compression stroke. The distributor could be 180 degrees off if you remove and replace it without being careful to check it's orientation before removal and don't rotate the engine while it's out.

Since your car ran fine you can be sure it is not 180 degrees out unless you removed the distibutor since it ran.

3. With the distributor rotated to point at the #1 or #6 plug wire slightly rotate the distributor to align the reluctor (spiked wheel under the rotor) to the small metal tab in the center of the pickup. Check to be sure the rotor isn't too far off the #1/#6 plug terminal.

4. Rotate the distributor just a touch more opposite to the distributor rotation until the reluctor just breaks alignment with the pickup coils tab.

5. Bolt it down.

This sets a static ignition timing of 0 degrees and I have yet to have an engine not start at 0 degrees.

Start it and set the timing with a timing light.

Update: I checked every inch of the positive battery cable from the battery in the trunk to the starter and the cable looks fine.

I pulled all but 2 of the spark plugs and disconnected the distributor. The engine spins fine except for (presumably) the 2 plugs that were still left in the engine. During those two cylinders, the starter labors.

After cranking, the positive battery cable (and to a lesser extent) the negative battery cable, were hot to the touch.

Any ideas? The trunk mounted battery setup has been working for nearly 2 years without problems. Why would I have electrical problems now?

I had to switch from stock starter to lightweight type after hot start problems persisted with batt in trunk.

When a starter cranks slower it draws MORE current which heats up the cables, could the batt have dropped a cell & be causing what I threw out there?. Ordinarily from your description of the symptoms I would think a bad connection in the big cable system but you've checked them all.

I've reattached the negative battery cable. It was only attached to the trunk floor, but now I've added a longer bolt which makes contact at the trunk floor and the bottom of the frame rail.

I replaced the light weight MP starter with a brand new light weight starter for an '98 Ram (5.9L). What are the odds of having 2 bad starters?

The battery is an Optima red top and is only 3 weeks old. Tomorrow I'll try swapping out the battery in my '05 Ram with the Charger's battery and see what happens. Both batteries are the same brand/type. I don't know what else could be causing this.

I really appreciate everyone's responses!

I may have missed it in some of the above posts:

WHAT SIZE is the pos/ neg cables?

DO YOU have a BIG jumper from the block to the frame/ body?

When you trunk mount a battery in a Mopar, because the bodies are welded (unibody) you don't need to worry too much about "the frame", but make sure if the battery is grounded to the unibody, then the engine block is, also, IE don't hook to a rusty memeber like the K frame, which bolts on.

what caused the first dist to fry? maybe causing the 2nd to fry?? causing hard cranking