Guys..I need your help please.

I have a problem with what I believe is the ignition system on the 440 Challenger that has recently started. I would be grateful if some of you experts could advise me on where to start troubleshooting the problem.

I had an ‘89 ford 2.0L 4-Cyl Escort GT years ago while in school that would cut out on me in similar fashion when the engine got up to operating temp and I couldn’t start her up again until she cooled down. A mechanic buddy of mine said that it was a common problem of Fords and it was a small module that plugged into the distributor that he swapped out (a $10 part) and the problem was fixed. Could it be something similar on my challenger. I didn’t see any kind of module on my pro billet MSD distributor??


I have a stoutly built 440/727 with an MSD 6AL, MSD blaster 2 coil, MSD billet distributor and Rich’s firecore50 plug wires and an optima red top battery.
The car has been rewired with a painless harness.

The engine fires up beautifully and idles like a kitten ‘til you hit the gas. There is what appears to be good spark and the Mallory electric fuel pump is getting lots of gas to the demon carb.

The problem ocurrs when I put it in drive and actually drive the car. After about 0.75miles of driving or so the car will just shut itself off but the dash lights etc stay on. The ignition system just shuts down and the car just coasts to a stop. It will fire back up after a short break but will ‘shut down’ again almost as soon as I put it in drive and drive it again..Then after a while it becomes more difficult to restart and the battery will die from the cranking.

The alternator is a ‘ToughStuff’ 90 amp from GregZ and it works fine. I had it off to get tested and it is putting out plenty of juice. The voltmeter reads around 14 constant volts.

The MSD box is mounted on the front of the passenger side inner fender a few inches back behind the radiator. Warm up there but there would be plenty of air coming through the grill to keep it cool.

Thanks,

NotaHemi

I'd start by checking that "M-ight S-putter & D-ie" 6AL module, along with your wiring harness, almost sounds like a heat soak problem with the module

coil??? when they go bad they get hot, when they get hot they don't work.

Might Sputter and Die... priceless

I'm with the last two guys; PC boards full of gizmos, and ignition coils are both known to flake when hot.

Battery, alternator... no so likely.

Should be simple to steal another coil off something and swap it in for diag purposes.

I had a coil that would die when heat soaked but lasted longer than that. Started up and ran fine, about a 1/2 hour later it'd crap out and not run until the coil had a chance to cool down again. But seeing how it's dying so fast it may be something else.