I just had another ECU for the Chrysler Electronic Ignition die on me. I have had some last a while, others just a few weeks or months. I know the Orange boxes were famous for being short lived, but I have had aftermarket replacements do no better really. I make sure all properly grounded to vehicle. I have 5 cars that all run this electronic conversion. I hate to think of ditching all of these systems for something else. Does anyone make these units that could be considered reliable?

I've been using the Standard LX101 box in one of the cars for a couple years, been fine.
The other car still has its orange box (MP conversion) from long ago.
Only failure I've had was one that the potting material melted out of maybe 25 years ago, but I'd hidden it in a washer jar so that probably didn't help.

I tried two different "Carquest Premium Ignition Modules" from two different stores this weekend, and neither one would make a spark out of the box.

I have had good luck with the Wells WVE 6H1062 sells for about $32, and has a (3) year warranty.
My experience with the later Mopar Orange modules has not been good, but I still am running an older chrome Mopar module.
In later years, most of these aftermarket modules are sourced from China and many are junk..
But always good to carry a spare in the glove box..

Just my $0.02....

I stopped using the Mopar style garbage years ago.

Now I plug in the MSD 6AL (older analog, new digital MSD stuff is garbage as well) plugged into a recurved stock distributor. It has the advantages of a rev-limiter and you can plug stuff into it like 2 steps and a timing controller to retard timing with a dial.

The car always starts instantly.

The Standard LX101 ignition box has a good reputation.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/parts/standard+motor+products,LX101,ignition+control+module+(icm),7172

Rick Ehrenberg from Mopar Action magazine sells the HR7500 ignition module. You can buy it from his Ebay store.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/225109916079?hash=item346998b9af:g:ZDMAAOSwtANelMZm

Don Gould at FBO sells the HRR688 ignition system. It's a Chrysler style ignition box and Pertronix 40011 ignition coil (you must use the Pertronix coil with the HRR688 ignition box)..

https://4secondsflat.com/Ignition.html

If you don't want to run a Chrysler ignition box - Pertronix sells an electronic ignition conversion kit for Chrysler distributors.

https://pertronixbrands.com/

Additional reading:

https://board.moparts.org/ubbthread...or-direct-replacemnt-hot-street-car.html

https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/threads/hyrev-7500-ecu-box.421044/

https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/ams/how-to-tell-a-fake-ecu-from-a-real-one.315/

https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/which-electronic-ignition.248030/

I stated this within the HIRev 7500 thread
About the Chinese junk out there


Anyways

Scour Swap Meets and EBay , you can still find NOS Chrysler ECUs and mid 70s / mid 80s Standard LX 101s when Standard Motor Products made them in the USA

The Standard LX101 ignition box has worked well with no failures for me.

. I am using the HR7500 on my Challenger and it has done well for over two years now. I was careful to use the coil they recommend. You can buy the HR7500 from JEGS. On my Charger I am using the FBO box and REALLY like it. Only been a couple of months but I am impressed. Again, I used their recommended coil and by-passed the ballast, and am using a Voltage Regulator with modern internals. For the FBO I bypassed the ballast by taking out the resistor from the back and substituting an 8 gage wire, using the same connectors, then I potted the back…so looks stock.

i have a chrome box on the shelf i took out of my 38 plymouth coupe when i sold it back in 1986 or so, minus the 360/727 combo [E58 cop engine/transmission]
it worked fantastic for over 10k miles in my coupe, but sitting on the shelf in a semi-upright position, the potting material started to melt out of it.
has anyone re-potted these control boxes ? if so, what material did you use ?
would filling the back side with high temperature silicon adhesive work for this purpose ?

I still have an orange box I bought back in 1992 with the conversion kit they sold. Its been in at least 6 different cars over the years and still going strong. Its the new ones that have the high failure rate. They use a TO-220 transistor instead of the HD TO-3. They have a dummy TO-3 mounted on them to deceive you. The TO-220 package handles much less current and im sure its the cause of all these failures.

I've seen orange boxes listed for over $100 recently so I guess the crappy new boxes are helping someone out.

Some of those threads that Wheeler posted touch on this very subject
Easy to spot

Thats why i stated stick with the Factory ECUs with Chrysler Part #s stamped on them or Made In The USA Standard LX 101s

Problem is no one makes the power transistor these boxes used to use, so they got redesigned to use something still being made, poorly redesigned that is.

I did some research into this a while back, there is (was?) a similar power transistor that could have been used, but it was more expensive. IIRC and it was a couple of years ago when I did the research, that transistor was something like $30 each from Mouser.

Do you know what the part number was for the replacement? I have connections for obsolete components and may be able to find them

Sorry, no I have forgotten what it was and since I don't run them in any of my rides the matter wasn't all that important to me.

All I can say is that the original transistor was a Motorola MJ10012.

That Motorola part # is all over EBay listings



RCA was original on many Factory part #s also

Interesting, I am now seeing them listed on Mouser, 160 qty minimum order though.

They aren't Motorola Brand though, MJ10012 is a industry part number, sort of light light bulb numbers.

As far as the Ebay listings, wonder where they came from? Someone clearing out old stock?

When companies close or clean out their inventory electronic scrap dealers come in buy it and then resell. A very common practice i worked for one company that went from over 100,000 sq. ft. to 30,000. They literally threw hundreds of thousands $$ in dumpsters and had the hauled away. didn't even attempt to sell any of it. There were signs all over the company, "IF IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT"

Well I went back and looked at the date codes, 29th week of 1994, definitely old stock or a chinese ripoff ala MSD.