Mancini/MP Electronic Ignition Conversion Help Needed

Hello All!! Been a long while since I've spent any time here. It's good to see that there are a lot of familiar names still around.

I have spent the last couple months putting together a 1971 Dodge D100 for a very good friend. Long story short, EVERYTHING under the hood is NEW. One of these "new" items is an electronic ignition conversion kit from Mancini's. I could not get the engine to fire up with the "orange" box that came with the kit. After much hair loss I stuck an old box I had laying around on and got the engine started. I broke the camshaft in 20 min. @ 2000 etc.. Started the truck several times that day with no issues. Next day, nothing, back to square one. Went and bought a module from Oreilly's, 4 pin, still nothing. Here's what I've done or checked:

1.) There is 12V from IGN 1 "run" to the ballast resistor. Blue elec ign wire connected here and getting 12V.

2.) There is 12V from IGN 2 "start" to the other side of the ballast resistor which is feeding 12V to the positive side of the coil is start position.

3.) The control box is grounded well. Ground wire from Neg side of battery to hold down bolt on control box. This latest box is unpainted. The previous ones I scraped the paint off for good ground.

Question: Is there suppose to be voltage on the negative side of the coil during the "start" or "run" position of the ignition switch? I have a momentary several millisecond blip of voltage when ign switch is very first turned "on" and when turned "off", but no other time during the starting process.

I am out of ideas and knowledge on electronic ignition. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
Russell

Unplug the bulkhead connectors and check for burned or badly corroded terminals. Make sure that the connectors are plugged in good and tight.

Hello Pentastar440, and thank you. I have done that multiple times. New ignition switch. Bought another complete wiring harness, bumper to bumper, and went over it with a fine tooth comb before I installed it. All bulkhead connections were cleaned thoroughly. I have rechecked since several times also.

You might pull the yellow "ign" wire off of the starter relay on the inner fender to termporarily disable the starter just for these tests. Take off any and all wires from the coil negative primary terminal and with the ign sw on (ign1) w a jumper wire ground this coil male neg pri terminal to ground repeatedly like Morse Code & see if the dist to coil secondary wire held 1/4" from the valve cover sparks then have a helper turn the ign sw to "start" (ign2) & hold it there & you repeat & see if it sparks. If it sparks on one or both tests then the ECU and the coil are good (though they both have been known to act up when hot). If not one of them is bad and or they are not getting fire (either in "run" or "start" and I would make sure the ECU is cleaned/scraped on the bottom by one of the mounting bolts even though it is unpainted just to be sure). If you have a spare dist plug it in & spin it by hand w the ign sw "on" and "start" & see if it triggers a spark from the coil secondary wire 1/4" from ground. The "point" of the ECU pentastar connector must get fire in "on" and in "start". Check the reluctor gap on your current dist & maybe reduce it to .005" at the tightest point which will be somewhere in the travel range of the vac adv (got a vac pump/Mityvac handy?). But with almost everything being new I'd think as you surmised a part time open but do check the reluctor gap.

Hello RapidRobert and thank you for your detailed info and time. I have Church and work tomorrow. Will most likely be Monday or Tuesday morning before I can run your suggested tests. I will definitely post back with the results.
Russell

I'm toward to pick up coil into dist... those pieces are coming BAAAAD QUALITY latelly

Thanks to those that posted suggestions! I went through RapidRobert's series of tests and never could get spark from the coil secondary wire to ground. The pickup coil tested bad also, but in this very poor quality electronic ignition conversion kit that Mancini markets, the pickup coil is riveted/bradded to it's mounting plate and is not replaceable without drilling it out. Shouldn't have to go drilling on something brand new to replace parts and make it work. The kit will go back to them. My friend that I am putting this truck together for ordered a "reman" factory dual point distributor from O'reilly's today for $43. We are running out of time to have this truck finished and road tested for his stepson by Christmas, and I have long since run out of patience with this ignition fiasco.

Thanks again to those who offered input!!

Quote:

---

Thanks to those that posted suggestions! I went through RapidRobert's series of tests and never could get spark from the coil secondary wire to ground. The pickup coil tested bad also, but in this very poor quality electronic ignition conversion kit that Mancini markets, the pickup coil is riveted/bradded to it's mounting plate and is not replaceable without drilling it out. Shouldn't have to go drilling on something brand new to replace parts and make it work. The kit will go back to them. My friend that I am putting this truck together for ordered a "reman" factory dual point distributor from O'reilly's today for $43. We are running out of time to have this truck finished and road tested for his stepson by Christmas, and I have long since run out of patience with this ignition fiasco.

Thanks again to those who offered input!!

---

Not sure where the MP kits are made anymore, but the last one i got wasn't nice at all, i'm thinking most, if not all is made "south of the border". I took a chance on one of those Procomp "all in one" GM style dizzys, it was a POS, Procomp sent me more junk for it, still a POS, just doesn't work, so i dropped in a point dizzy, ran good, then i took another chance on an e-bay dizzy, this one uses the ex-ternal coil, its made by Wysco sold by white performance group, still a china piece, i bought an MSD blaster 2 coil, dropped it all in & hooked up 2 wires, it runs great, timing is nice & steady, that one set me back 65.00 shipped, but to spend 200.00 or more for the MP kit & have it be junk is not right.