I was driving the Challenger this morning and I pulled into a parking lot to tune the in-gear idle vacuum. The car ran great and I just finished tweaking the carb and while I was walking around the car, it quit running. There was no hint, it just shut off like a light switch. I had voltage, I had fuel, but I could not do any ignition checks. The car sat for 15 minutes or so while I tried to figure it out and then I started up and it was fine for about 10 seconds then died again. Then about another 15 minutes went by and I tried to start it again and it was a bear to get running and then when it finaly did, it was sputtering and puking and I was fighting to keep it running at 1800rpms or so. Then it just slowly died again. I got my AAA card out and it is now sitting in the garage.
My thinking is that the coil or the ECU puked out. Any suggestions?
Note: It does not have a ballast and it has a 3 month old "non-ballast" Mallory coil, 4 year old FBO ECU and distributor.

I have another old coil and Orange ECU box to test out but I wanted to get some advise before jumping in on it on FATHERS DAY.

It was a crapty start for my Fathers day having one of my kids with me and having the whole family watch the car bing loaded onto flat bed, but hopefully my day will get better.

Happy Fathers Day to everyone.

Thanks

Check the ignition feed at the firewall. Blue and green wires very near the brake booster. These spade connections often fail after this much time.
You should have battery voltage at the ballast resistor with the key in the run position.

This may not be the problem of course, but its such a simple thing to check/repair that its a good diagnostic starting point.

I would certainly look at the coil they can overheat and shut the car off. After they cool down the car will start again. I had many a Mopar back in the day that had this very same issue.

No ballast, and the coil is only 3 months old and it is one of the Mallory epoxy coils. I would hope that these last longer than 3 months.

I am charging the battery now since I cranked with it for a long time. I might have some time to check the wires at the bulk head later on today.

thanks

Why no ballast?

If the coil is made to run on 12 volts, why would you need a ballast?

When the engine is running, you can get by fine with a lot less current at the points. That's the purpose of the ballast resistor. If the points were to receive full battery current/voltage at all times, they would only last a few hundred miles before needing replacement. On the same token with the electronic system it protects your coil from premature failure, unless your running aftermarket stuff such as MSD.

At the time of cranking (when the starter is operating), a separate wire gives the points the full 12 volts, bypassing the ballast resistor. When you release the key from "start" to "on", all the power to the points now has to flow through the ballast resistor, preserving the points.

For the .002 second performance gain, it's not worth running your coil at 12+ volts when it's designed for 9v. You wont wreck it right away, but you will shorten it's life.

The Mallory coil is designed to run without a ballast and I don't want one. I blew a ballast this spring so I changed to a different coil.

The battery is now charged so I am going to check some voltages.

Thanks for the replies.

"Blue and green wires very near the brake booster. These spade connections often fail after this much time."

Check out my picture. The blue wire is burned about half an inch back from the connector. Is this my issue? If so, what is the best way to fix it since the wire is potted into the connector?

Thanks

The MSD coil was probably set up with an internal resistor.

Easiest way to check is to use a jumper wire from the battery to bypass those wires. If it starts, most likely it is your problem.

The coil in question does have an internal resistor.
This is a picture of the inside of the bulkhead. This side shows signs of being burnt too.
How can I fix this at the connector or do I need to pull the connector and reroute this wire around the bulkhead?

Thanks

I think there is possibly a bad batch of those new mallory chrome coils, as a freind in town just went through that with a new everything car. We were trying ecu's at first with the comes and goes spark situation, ended up being coil.

This is my current Mallory non ballast coil.

What is the best/safest way to fix the above burnt ignition feed wire?

Thanks

Remove and repolace the terminals.

I can tell you my Road Runner died in the street while waiting in traffic. Acted the same as yours. Turned out to be the second (and my last) orange ignition box.

Do the new terminals just press into place on oth connectors?
Bama: I do have another ECU to test but since I found this burnt connector issue, it needs to be fixed first. The inside of the connector (second picture) shows that the blue wire only has a few strands holding it onto the spade due to the burnt sheilding of the wire.