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1974 Road Runner no spark and starter issue #1889710
08/11/15 08:06 PM
08/11/15 08:06 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,641
Madrid, IA
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hellrzr Offline OP
top fuel
hellrzr  Offline OP
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,641
Madrid, IA
I had an issue with my Road Runner and had a lot of trouble finding information on the internet so after a lot of research and some testing I believe I’ve found the problem and just wanted to share my experience in case anyone else runs into this issue. The car is a 400 (470) stroker with an F.B.O ignition system on it and is a 727 auto.

Trouble started one day on the way home from work. We had a little car show so I drove the car and after work made a couple of stops. At each stop the car really labored to turn over. The battery was only 1 year old so I didn’t think that was an issue. I got the car home and pulled into the garage right when I started getting smoke from under the hood. I shut it off and discovered the positive battery cable had burned badly due to touching the header. I figured this must have been the problem. After a little hunting around I found someone on Ebay who makes the cable so I got one on the way. Once I got the cable changed the car started up and I drove it around town and all seemed well. The next time I went to drive the car I let it warm up and after a couple of minutes it died hard. An electrical death, not a lack of fuel death! It was like a switch had been turned off. I let it sit and it fired up again and then it died again. The tach just dropped like a rock. After that it would turn over but wouldn’t start. I then checked for spark and no spark. I messed with the ECU and coil and suddenly I have spark. Go to start the car again and suddenly no spark! The story is painful from here swapping parts and getting spark and no spark so I won’t get into that but needless to say I tried parts and checked for grounding issues and checked voltages and all that. At one point I noticed the battery cable getting very hot and could even see the negative cable twitch at times while turning the car over. After more research I swapped the distributor and suddenly after that the car wouldn’t even turn over. I was so mad at that point I stopped working on it and it sat all winter.

So now jump to this summer. I started on the car again and was back to it not turning over so I let it sit until I could get a new mini starter, which is what it had on it already. By not turning over I mean I didn’t even get a click from the starter but the starter relay was working and I had power at the starter itself. After the pain of swapping the starter and removing the header and all the joy that is, I bumped the key and the sucker turned over!! So I get the header back on and get everything back together that I had pulled apart for testing and fired the beast up. It ran good and I let it get up to temperature with no issues. I then bought some heat wrap for the starter and then took it for a drive and it’s running fine so far! I am beyond happy that I’ve finally gotten it going but I feel dumb for not swapping the starter right away. At first I was going to change it but then I read so much stuff that pointed to other issues I got off track with the starter and then got so frustrated that nothing was working.

So it seems that a bad starter solenoid will cause a no spark condition. From most of the information I was finding, everyone said that if the starter turned over than it was fine and the problem must be else ware so that is why I didn’t swap out the starter sooner. So if you aren’t getting spark and your battery cables are getting hot change the starter!!! Even if the dumb thing is turning over.

I do have one question. Since my original problem was that the car died after it warmed up, does that mean that the starter solenoid is part of the electrical system even after the car starts up and therefore if it has a problem it will cause the car to shut off? This is the only thing that makes sense even though I’ve been led to believe that once the starter gets the car going it is out of the picture entirely.

Re: 1974 Road Runner no spark and starter issue [Re: hellrzr] #1889721
08/11/15 08:19 PM
08/11/15 08:19 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 25,200
Upper Midwest
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MoparforLife Offline
Too Many Posts
MoparforLife  Offline
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 25,200
Upper Midwest
It means that you had a vertually dead battery consequences of a dead or dying starter that was shorting out the system so that the battery was draining enough voltage so as not do both turn the engine over and supply voltage to fire the plugs. When it did run and stop it meant that the battery had self charged and gotten enough residual voltage to momentarly start and fire the ignition. THEN the voltage would drop to a point where it wouldn't fire the ignition system any more and there you sat with a no start situation. It takes X amount of voltage to fire and electronic ignition system. Some more some less. You may have in the process bandaided a poor connection causing the system not to charge properly.

Last edited by MoparforLife; 08/11/15 08:24 PM.

Clean it, if it's Dirty. Oil it, if it Squeaks. But: Don't fix it, if it Works!
Re: 1974 Road Runner no spark and starter issue [Re: hellrzr] #1889744
08/11/15 08:50 PM
08/11/15 08:50 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 32,884
Grand Prairie,Texas
stumpy Offline
I Win
stumpy  Offline
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 32,884
Grand Prairie,Texas
Bad starter solenoid will not cause no spark. Not even in the same circuit. Like MFL said you had other issues that you managed to fix.

Re: 1974 Road Runner no spark and starter issue [Re: hellrzr] #1889816
08/11/15 09:57 PM
08/11/15 09:57 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,641
Madrid, IA
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hellrzr Offline OP
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hellrzr  Offline OP
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,641
Madrid, IA
Thanks guys! I have been afraid that there was/is another issue that may appear again and cause the ignition to fail. I swapped about everything and connected and disconnected about everything at some point while testing. Maybe in that process I fixed a poor ground or other connection and the starter failing was coincidental? It makes me nervous how far to trust the car now. I guess all I can do it drive it and hope the problem got fixed.

I anyone else has encountered this and can think of another component to keep an eye on in case it fails again I would be happy to hear it!







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