440 wont start

[Todd Wilson]

Welp its a rare day when I have become stumped and at my wits end with my 1974 Dodge truck with a 440.

A little history............earlier this year I had a alternator go bad,replacement alternator was messed up from parts store and smoked the wiring on the ignition side of the engine harness. I redid this harness and got the truck running again. Been running now for  some time with no troubles.

Recently the truck has started to have a problem where it will just die. Like you shut the key off. Symptoms..........truck may start and idle fine and you can drive it all day with no troubles. It may go a week without troubles.  You go to start it it and it will fire up. Maybe die in 20 seconds and then restart or not start at all.    If the truck starts and idled for say 2 minutes without a spell its good to go. I have never had the truck shut off while driving. Always on a start. Like I said it if stays running 2 minutes  it will run until it runs out of gas. I have had it idle for an hour in the drive way with no troubles.

Sometimes this die spell will correct itself in a few minutes  or it may take over night. Several times I have cranked and cranked and cranked and it would not start at the house. I say screw it and go inside for the night. Come out in the morning and it takes off and runs fine.

The engine harness has been checked and rechecked.   Truck has new ballast resistor,new coil and a different ECU, new fuel pump and filter. Carb checked out fine. Truck ran fine last night and was tuned and timed and ran for at least an hour at the house. Went for a drive. 440 ran great!  Today after 20+ hours of sitting it wont fricken start. It hit and died and that was it.


When the truck has its spell I have voltage at the coil.And at no time has this changed so that tells me my engine harness is ok.  My keyswitch appears to be ok. I never lose accesscory power. I have rechecked the bulkhead connector. I have checked and cleaned every electrical connection on the truck.

  I do not have spark according to my timing light. Would this be a bad reluctor in the distributor? 

There is no pattern to this problem other then once it runs it will stay running. Rain or dry hot or cold doesnt seem to matter. It thankfully stayed running during our blizzard a few weeks ago. It will go a week with no troubles and then give fits for 3 days straight.

Its very odd as I will try something and then it will start and run fine. Next day its dead again. Each time I think its something I replace and it fires up and runs fine.   Next day or week its bad again.

Any ideas?


Todd

[maxwellwedge]

If you have voltage at the coil during the spell it would only leave the distributor or coil to look at assuming you are getting fuel.

[Todd Wilson]

If you have voltage at the coil during the spell it would only leave the distributor or coil to look at assuming you are getting fuel.

I'm getting fuel. I have even dumped some gas down the carb with no luck. It even will smell of gas like its flooded if I crank a long time. I know its got fuel! 

My last theory is perhaps something got burnt a little bit inside the dist when it had its alternatotr spell and is now starting to completely fail.
.


Todd

[firefighter3931]

Change the pickup in the electronic distributor....it is probably shorting out intermittently. 



Ron

[67_Dodge_Charger]

I had the same problem with my truck... It is pretty frustrating but once you change out the pickup in the coil it should run great.  Ron is a great source for helping us out here on this site.

Robert

[Todd Wilson]

Anyone got any idea how to get the pickup coil out of the dist.?   My service manual shows a tab deal but I cannot see a thing. The reluctor star wheel comes right off  but after that I cant see what to do next?

I got a new pickup coil. With a ohm meter its showing some ohmage  while the old coil shows nothing. Perhaps this is my problem.   Is it gonan be possible to swap this out without pulling the dist.?   I can get right to it on the old truck.


Todd

[Todd Wilson]

Well just an update  the pickup coil has appeared to take care of the problem. In the mean time i zapped my spare ECU.   I must have unplugged something when the key was on as I was trouble shooting. I spent most of saturday trying to figure out why the truck would not start. Tested and retested everything only to discover the ECU was bad. Swapped back my orange box and it took right off.  In the manual there is a test you can do with the ohm meter to test pickup coils.  You want some ohmage when you test. The old one was open.



Todd