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sounds like it could be 180 out.have you had the dist out?

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Agreed it can't be 180 out, and have you verified no round cam lobes. Isn't this an ongoing problem from an earlier post?

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Bad plug or plug wire. Accel pump (insufficient stream amount/duration). Possible vac leak as you noted. rotor phasing/reluctor gap issues

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about checking for a flat cam. Pull the valve covers and crank it over with the coil wire off. If one is flat you will see a noticable difference in movement of the rocker arm on the one that is flat.

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Sounds like the plugs are OK & likely the wires are also & I'm assuming 5/7 ain't crossed. I would ohm them & wiggle the ends as you watch the meter & power brake the eng at midnight with the hood open & see if there's a light show (grab a helper). You really need a vac pump (they're pretty reasonable) to check phasing/gap as the vac adv (only) alters phasing and gap so the pump lets you check em anywhere from no vac (what you have if on ported at idle) all the way to full vac. Holler how it turns out & what it ends up being

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Did you reinstall the reluctor wheel in the correct position? I believe they're are two.

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Yes I did. Good catch btw. I even stole the magnetic pick-up off a spare BB distrib I had because the one that was in my SB distrib seem bent. The gap wasn't perfectly parallel. It's fix now though

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Engine grounded/ control box grounded ? First step would be check and be sure wires are in correct order, second check coil output. The dist here is very suspect I would pull it and replace it with known good dist. If that does not work get a advance timing light and see what timing you have when it pop's I try getting mine to 38-40 degree's total If it talks turn it back if not give it more you could have damper that is going off by ring slip{ not Likely but possible if original}Also a vacuum leak will do the same Thing valve springs can do it also{ not likely}

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Did you reinstall the reluctor wheel in the correct position? I believe they're are two.

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Yes I did. Good catch btw. I even stole the magnetic pick-up off a spare BB distrib I had because the one that was in my SB distrib seem bent. The gap wasn't perfectly parallel. It's fix now though

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Try the other pickup. I had a distributor laying on the shelf for a few years that worked when removed. I put it in another car and it was no good, a new pickup fixed it. Worth a shot. The problem you described sounds like incorrectly gapped points to me, so I'd say it could easily be a faulty pickup

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You originally mentioned that when it popped the dome light would dim & I wonder if that is from the starter partly or wholly engageing at that point in time (which takes alot of current & will make a light dim). Could you take off the brown (sol) wire at the starter relay in case the relay is intermittently engaging the starter then jump it at the starter to start it & retry it & if it still does it then replace the starter to elim that issue. I'm bothered by the 1 spark you saw & was a helper loading the eng as you eyeballed things under the hood?

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Try disconnecting the vacume advance and see if it will help. I had a BB with the vacume hooked up two weeks ago that would do that with the vacume advanced hook up

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I was going to suggest something of this nature, but to check and make sure the vacuum advance was actually working, as I had a situation that drove me nuts for a while, the vacuum advance pin on the end of the arm popped out of the breaker plate...the engine would break up around the 1800 and up range, of course it's always the last thing on ya list of things to look for!

mike

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Try disconnecting the vacume advance and see if it will help. I had a BB with the vacume hooked up two weeks ago that would do that with the vacume advanced hook up

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When I saw the 1 spark, I was not loading the engine. I was by myself and the car was in park. I'll get my gf to give me a hand and we'll give that a try.

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When I saw the 1 spark, I was not loading the engine. I was by myself and the car was in park. I'll get my gf to give me a hand and we'll give that a try.

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with you loading it if you hear a yelp come from under the hood then likely she has found (& can identify) the plug wire that is leaking voltage. Might be 2 problems, the starter and the plug wire/boot EDIT Do you have another coil laying around that you could sub in for a quick test? another dist also (phasing if it's phasing is different from the current one/pickup continuity issue)

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Try the other pickup.

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Try the other pickup.

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Go to ignition switch where it pugs into main harness check and see if you have swollen /green corroded red color roughly 10 gauge wire. I have had that happen on two old mopars over the years

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Check the cam
had a 383 dart and chased that popping just like you are doing
and had one lobe wiped
--Good luck

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This reeks of something electrical to me. When I first read it I was thinking valvetrain but now I don't think so. If you can find another ignition switch and plug it in under the dash I would try it. Something about the voltage drop and dome light dimming has me thinking its either ignition or dash wiring related. Was there any dash cluster-switch wiring that looked a little hinky when you put it together? Someone here will know something. There is a ton of experience around.

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Could it be a broken valve spring, The inner damper could be allowing the valve to close at low RPM but bring it up and it can no longer be controlled, I've seen it on a few chevy's like that

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You have to address the voltage drop first. Visually check that the main- and starter studs on the starter relay for space between the wire terminals. They are close to each other so the terminals might actually jump a spark and engage the starter for a moment and pull down voltage.
If ok, run a jumper wire from battery + to ignition side of ballast resistor and disconnect the original wire from ballast. If this cures it you have limited the problem down to ignition switch and ignition wiring.

Still no go? Eliminate the starter relay by disconnecting the black(?) Starter solenoid wire from starter relay after starting the car. Test again.

Also check starter terminals for space between solenoid- and battery terminals. They might be close to touching eachother depending on how wires were mounted.

Please check this before you tear into the engine!

Let us hear what you find.

Lars

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Good find! Did you run a jumper from battery + to ballast too? If not, you have only isolated the problem to starter relay AND ignition switch/wiring. Run that jumper without disconnecting starter solenoid wire. If it pops it is the starter relay. I have seen worn ignition switches cause strange things also.
Please tell us what the exact problem is when you find it.
Lars

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I dont whant to give you more headake but i realy hate the Mopar Performance orange boxes ! There have been alot of bad manufacured sold on the open market so if you know any one that have a old true box try to test that one insted if you can and i would realy recomend a old crome one if you can find one becas they are even better then the orange for the street. It may not be the resone for your misfire trubbel but even how it´s my experience and i have dropt over to the Revnator my self and have no complains on that product that alos have a revlimiter built in that i can change easy

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I dont whant to give you more headake but i realy hate the Mopar Performance orange boxes ! There have been alot of bad manufacured sold on the open market so if you know any one that have a old true box try to test that one insted if you can and i would realy recomend a old crome one if you can find one becas they are even better then the orange for the street. It may not be the resone for your misfire trubbel but even how it´s my experience and i have dropt over to the Revnator my self and have no complains on that product that alos have a revlimiter built in that i can change easy

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Yeah, I see what you're saying. I did try a different box to no avail last weekend. At some point, I'll probably switch ignition boxes, but for now I'm gonna go with what I've got so I can get this thing drivable. Thanks for the input though. I may end up going with a Revenator eventually myself.

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You will defenetly like the Revenator Hope you solve your issue soone so you can hit the road whit a smile

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Correct. Brown wire bypasses ballast when starter is engaged. If the ballast bypass is tapped from the yellow starter wire this will create a connection between the 6-9 volts at ballast and your yellow starter wire. In your case it seems like you get enough juice to make the starter relay engage at 1800 rpm:-)
Go back to OEM wiring and problem should be solved (unless the reason for the former owner to rewire the bypass was a faulty ignition switch).
Lars

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Thanks for the help. Pretty sure I've finally got this figured out. I did look at the directions for the mopar perf. electronic ignition though. Looks like they say to tap into the yellow starter wire to power the 'crank' side of the ignition... Weird!

Here's the diagram straight out of the instructions:

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Have you checked your alternator output voltage as you rev the engine? Maybe your voltage regulator is bad and it's producing too much voltage and that's pulling the starter relay in.

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this is a 2 terminal "single" ballast that comes with the orange box MP kit correct? If not (4 terminal "dual" ballast) holler. You only need 1 ballast. post the pri ohms of the two you have along with the pri ohms of the coil you are using & I'll give my on the best one to use. run the blue ign1 run wire (switched 12V) to the upstream "input" side of the ballast & T from right there to the "point" of the ECU which is the hot power in. connect the other "downstream" end of the ballast to the coil positive primary. Run the brown ign2 "crank" wire to the same "downstream" end of the ballast.

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Yes, both of the ballasts I've got in my enginge compartment are the 2 terminal 'single' ballasts. One is the original ballast, which still has the VR and wires coming from the ign switch hooked to it. The other was the one installed with the electronic ignition. The new one was installed pulling 'run' power from the output side of the original ballast and pulling 'crank' power from the yellow starter trigger wire.

Both ballasts are the same.

I just snipped the yellow wire and temporarily tapped into the brown "start" wire. I also, ran a jumper 12V wire to the 'run' side of the new ballast.

After turning the key on, I've got 10.7V from the upstream sides of both ballasts and 7.8V on the downstream sides. This is with the engine off and key turned to "on," or "run."

I'm pretty sure this'll work. Just curious if I could nix one of the ballasts and use a single ballast for both the charging circuit and the electronic ignition. Or will it overload the ballast?

Here is a picture of the two ballasts. you can see one on the right and one by the ECU.

Not sure how to test the ohms of the ballasts or the coil, but the coil is just a regular Chrysler coil, nothing special..

[

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You only use 1 ballast. I'll assume the one on the dr side is the OE points ballast which the last high mileage one I checked was 1.6 ohms. The one with the orange box MP kit is a nominal 1.25 ohms. Either will work fine with your app but only use one & I'd wire it as I posted.

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I was wondering what the ballast on the wiper is for. I have one on my 70 Challenger also and one for the ignition.

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The wiper ballast is to let the wipers park.

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