My friend had a 1976 Dodge D600 dump truck with a 360 in it that wont start with the ignition switch. You can drift start it and it fires right up. He tried changing the ballast resistor and it didn't fix it.

Also says that when you are cranking it over and let off the switch it will try to fire sometimes.

Anyone have any ideas what else could be wrong?

Thanks!

Take off the yellow "ign" wire from the starter relay to disable the starter so as to not run the batt down & no need for the starter noise distraction then have a helper hold the key to "start" & you under the hood & see if the ballast/coil/ECU are recieving fire. Assuming 4 terminal ballast/5 pin ECU. 2 pins of the ECU need fire in "start" as does the coil positive primary terminal. What is drift starting? I'm assuming that is push starting it with the key in "on" rather than in "start" which points to an ign2 (cranking) circuit open

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I'm assuming that is push starting it with the key in "on" rather than in "start" which points to an ign2 (cranking) circuit open

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Yep he says when you push start it with the ignition on it fires right up.

The ign switch is not providing power to the ign during crank, it needs an ign switch or a bad connection.

Bad ignition switch. There is a separate feed from the switch that bypasses the ballast resistor during start. Power flows from the "start" terminal through the coil to the distributor.
Then when you let the key back up to run, the power flows from the "run" terminal through the ballast resistor. So the "run" circuit only is hot during running, and the "start" circuit is only hot during starting.

Replace the ignition switch. This is a very common problem.

R.

He replaced the ignition switch already. Going to have him check the wire.

see if the ign2 (crank) wire is hot at the bulkhead (both sides) when the key is held to "start". This'll tell him whether to work downstream toward the coil/ECU or back toward the ign switch for the open

Check the fuse box in the glove box. These were notorious for melting the plastic around the fuses and losing contact.