'69 Charger starting problem

Hello,

When I parked my '69 Charger last fall, it was running fine. When I went to get it out of storage today, it will crank but not start. Is 440 engine with Chrysler electronic conversion.

What I have done so far;

- poured a small amount of gas in carb. (I always do that on first start-up so engine catches faster without a lot of cranking). It did not catch at all, no backfire or anything. That was my first hint that there is a problem.

- replaced ECU, then coil and as a last resort the ballast resistor (even though I knew it typically does not cause this problem), with known good spares.

We then checked for spark at coil by holding coil wire close to metal part while cranking engine. My friend said there was no spark when cranking, but a spark when I turned ignition to off position.

I am thinking maybe bad ignition switch? Or is it normal to have a spark when turning ignition off? I would not think it would be.

Any info / suggestions / ideas are greatly appreciated.

Move the wiring at the firewall junction box around. You have two sources of hot feed from there ,one for start and one for run, and it may have gotten corroded from sitting.

also check the connection at the ignition switch for corrosion and battery voltage in the start and run positions.

I agree, Bulkhead connector. Such a common place but often over looked. Take it apart and inspect the copper lugs. Any that are corrored can be taken out and brushed off with a brass brush.

To remove a connector squeeze like in the picture below.

You might clean the male ones with a small metal bristle brush & the female ones with a spare male spade. I would jump 12V to the downstream end of the ballast & crank it & see if it starts then jump to the upstream side of the ballast & again see if it starts. Holler how it goes

hi

bad / old gas can cause hard starts .

makes sure the ecu is grounded !

a bad coil can damage a good ecu !

Thanks everyone! I will give that all that a try. It will be a few days before I get back at it.

Robert, I will post how it goes for sure. One of my pet peeves is a poster not coming back to report what worked to fix their problem after people take time to try to help them.

Ignition switch is easy to test. Make sure there is the correct voltage in crank and run positions.

https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/attachments/mopar_electronic_ignition_diagram-jpg.1714629349/

You can see this when the ECU is bad. Spark at initial on and at off. Also just ran into this with a car that would only start as the switch was released. It was a butchered up repair, but some one had spliced a new connector to the distributor and wired it reverse. So we had a repeatable ignition spark only at on and off (once). Once we reversed the plug, the car would fire in the start position.

The ECU is looking for a negative pulse to fire the coil, which it gets when ignition is turned off. Since coil is already charged and capacitors in ECU have voltage you can see this response.

If you have voltage at the resistor and at the coil in run and start position, your bulkhead connector is OK. If you did not mess with distributor you should try swapping the ECU.

I hope the old expression "better late than never" is true.

The car was stored a ways away from me. Some unforseen issues caused scheduling problems with the property owner and me.

Car is home now. Problem turned out to be bulkhead connections (as several people suggested). However, all the suggestions were possibilities.

Thanks for all the replies, terminal info and testing info!

i'm glad you sorted it out and the car is now running.

I really enjoy reading about these electrical issues. Moparts has really great supports when it comes to problem solving. Plus it gives us novices ideas to consider when problems arise! To the original poster, I am glad it got figured out!

Mike

agreed, the combined tech/info/experience here & fabo is off the charts