Did chrysler have the absolute weakest ignition systems ever built or what? My 440 dart has the stock electronic ignition. Sometimes it might sit 4 months at a time in the garage, and if it does sit that long, you can count on replacing the spark plugs to ever make it run again! There is such a super fine, fine line with the thing on not enough gas to fire it to too much to where the plugs saturate and wont ever run again with those plugs. If it sits a week i have to pump the crap out of the gas, crank it, pump some more, then it will fire and die, pump some more then it will fire and stay running. Let it sit for months and forget it! Not starting pump the gas and crank over and over till its flooded, then its new plug time and im tired of it. The ignition system has to be weak as crap on these things for it to be such a fine line between not enough gas and pumping and all the sudden too much and flooded. The carb is a demonsizzler built thermoquad with no choke. Making me want to just sell it cause im tired of this same ordeal when im ready to pull it out. The old 440 in the race car always fires right off no matter how long it sits. I have a lot of years and money in this thing but this problem has worn me down to where im tired of it and i hate that..

I doubt your problem is ignition. Sounds to me like carb trouble.

440 Darts have a stock electronic ignition?

The car came stock with electronic ignition and still has it. Had 318 originally.

does the unit have a separate ground cable to the block from the firewall where it is mounted??Just a thought

It's difficult to guess a starting issue without actually being there and/or having a ton more detail on the combo, settings, and (confirmed) condition of the individual componants. These days a hard/slow fireup start after a long time sitting is commonly due to the fuel evaporating from the carburator, it's todays garbage fuel, not the carbs fault. The easist fix is to install an electric fuel pump which will refill the carb with the key on and offer up fuel to the engine immediately.

Also, you mentioned no choke, a cold carb will start hard as he!! without a choke, goes with the ricky racer package!

I'd add a choke, Electronic is the most trouble free, a factory automatic choke is next, a manual choke can be the most difficult unless you are good at using one. If you go with an automatic choke be sure you understand how they work when the engine is cold and use the appropriate startup prodedure. I don't know which TQ you have, factory choke styles varied.

Your ignition system is suspect until you can (absalutely) confirm that it's healthy. If the componants are all good Mopar factory electronic systems are fairly trouble free and plenty strong enough to light off a stock or warmed 440.

you are correct in that the fuel will evaporate from the bowl after sitting for that long, thats why i normally give it a shot of starting fluid right off the bat, but it still doesnt want to fire off

You will need an electric fuel pump or a different carb. AFBs, ABSs, and Thermoquads are infamous for dry bowls. The Holley style carbs don't seem to suffer the same problem.

Yep, sounds familiar.



Of all the Mopars I have the one with points starts the best.

The rest, make you hang your head in shame.

MSD has a digital e-curve distributor that retards the timing at "key-on start" so maybe that might help.

There's also the gm HEI ballast resistor eliminator idea................

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thermoquad with no choke.

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I think you found your problem!

I have 2 cars with 440's, one has an original AVS no choke and the other had a Holley with no choke. Neither starts easy.The Holley was real touchy when starting, I had to get it just right or it flooded. I changed that out to a Carter Competition (same as Eddy) with electric choke I had around.One wire on the choke to ground the other to the switched power side of the ballast. Voila! Starts real easy and drive away after 30 seconds. A good choke will solve your problem.

man you have something wrong in that car. sure the carb isn't a POS. my dart can sit for months and it starts pretty easy when i go to run it. never fouls plugs like that. i have had a few different holley carbs on it. all with no choke. i pump the gas a few times. start it. let it stall then start it up and keep it running for a minute or so and its fine. has a stock style ign. in it. started the same way when it has MSD in it.

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i pump the gas a few times. start it. let it stall then start it up and keep it running for a minute or so and its fine.

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Exactly.

My 71 340 Duster has a Holley 650 DP with no choke, 73 340 Dart Sport, same thing, Holley 650 DP with no choke and the 71 RR 440 six pack with no choke. All work exactly as described above. Even the 71 Demon 340 with factory TQ and choke is pretty much the same way, but with more cranking after sitting a long time. Sometimes I just pour a little bit of gas down the carb to avoid all the cranking. But I've never had all the plug fouling like the OP has.

I have to agree with some of the other people on here. Are you sure it's the ignition? I also run the Mopar ignition on my car. In the past 22 years I have only had to replace the box itself only twice. My car stays in a shed usually from November until March. During that time, I will usually start it and let it run for a while every 4 to 6 weeks. My carb. is a 750 DP Holley without a choke. I have to pump it a few times, but it always fires up, and after about 5 minutes it will idle by itself.

What brand of plugs are you using?
I have in the past had more of a problem with gas fouling the plugs when using Champions, and maybe the heat range is wrong?
Coil is good?
Checked the spark? Like me, fat and blue?

I had a 74 Charger that when it sat the carb would let gas seep and saturate the plugs making it hard to start. Just a thought.

sometimes when im cranking and cranking and it wont fire, when i turn the key off, it will hit, if i do that a few times it will sometimes clear the plugs enough to start.

I'm thinking that your carb is leaking fuel down the intake, which then soaks the plugs.

but if it is ignition related, if everything is in good working order, then it should fire off without much trouble. just gotta find the "sweet spot"

I had a hard time starting my big block stroker, especially when it was cold out. couldn't tell if it wanted more or less gas.

After a lot of attempts, I finally figured it out. prime the fuel system via electric pump to ensure fuel in the carb. give it 3 pumps of the pedal if it was above 45 degrees, then hold it open just a hair while cranking (Holley 75HP, no choke) once fired, give it 1500 rpm for a few minutes to warm up, then slowly back it down to idle.

anything different than that, it would stall out and I'd have to start over


when it was below 45 degrees, I had to give it 5-6 pumps of gas to finally light off.