distributor voltage

[Charger72SE]

I had the guy that rebuilt my Holley carb look at the spark plugs after a few weeks to see how things look.

He thought the voltage was weak at the spark plug.  He mentioned there is an electronic tester called a KV meter that can check the voltage going through each spark plug wire.  Does anyone recommend one that is relatively inexpensive to buy?  What voltage should be going through the spark plug wire?

I have a 72SE with a 440 HP and electronic ignition.  The spark plug wires are brand new.

Also, I saw the attached picture in an article in Mopar Action, which states the Mopar distributors aren't that great because of the crummy spark plug wire attachment at the distrubutor cap and the slop in the distributor which causes spark scatter.  Adding a shaft collar is suppose the greatly lessen the scatter.  Has anyone tried this?  I was thinking it may help with the weak voltage.

thanks for any help!!

[no318]

Buy a spark tester that looks like spark plug without the center electrode and has a ground clip on it.  It will fit into the spark plug wire and ground wherever.  When cranking there should be enough voltage to jump it.  They usually take about 25-30kV to jump the gap.  Normal firing kV is around 6-15 kV.  USUALLY there is spark or no spark, not likely to be there but just weak.  It is possible, but not real likely.

[OttawaCharger]

I had a problem like that with a Chevy once.  It turned out to be a bad engine to chassis ground!
Check out this thread for lots of good ideas on a car with problems much like you have http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,28388.0.html

Good luck!

[Charger72SE]

thanks guys for the info!

does that shaft collar on the distributor makes sense?

[1BAD68]

There's a discussion about that on this link...

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=2875075&an=0&page=2#Post2875075

[Charger72SE]

thanks 1BAD68!!!