no spark to fire up my new motor

[nrt69]

ive got a new MSD eCurve distrib and MSD blaster coil but im not getting any spark to fire up the motor. its getting fuel.
when i first put in the distrib, it started up fine. after a couple of test runs (ive got a new motor in the car) it seemed to not want to start up after it was hot. then it just stopped starting all together. ive checked voltage and even sent the distrib back to MSD for them to test it and they say its ok.
the only thing i can think of is my ballast resistor bypass. i had to bypass it to get 12 volts to the distrib. i simply unplugged the two sides of the resistor and plugged them together to bypass it. there arent any melted wires anywhere.

does anyone have any idea on whats going on or where to start looking?

[TXcharger70]

  Are you getting spark out of the coil? Did you check your wiring to make sure everything was conected correctly and maybe not have a wire switch around? all though i know you said you had no spark, do you have adjustable rocker if so you may want to check your valve adjustment. I had a simalar issue where my valve were a little off and I had lots of trouble getting it started again.

[nvrbdn]

i had the same thing happen. new motor rebuild, new dist. started right up but when hot wouldnt start. after id get it running, try to drive it and it had no power and would start to ping under exceleration. ended up being the new timing chain stretched out. cold it would work. hot it lost a couple degrees and wouldnt run. of course,this has nothing to do with you not getting spark.

[TXcharger70]

and you dont have any kind of kill switch wired up either do you

[nrt69]

MSD said my distrib and coil, both new, tested good.
a friend helped me check for spark to the plugs and from the coil and we didnt get anything.
i followed MSDs instructions on checking voltage to the distrib and it came back as it should.

im at a total loss. i dont understand why it would work at first then eventually stop working.

does anyone in TX know of a good restoration specialist's?

[nvrbdn]

im hearing that there is power to the coil that was checked. then the wires from the distributor are hooked to the coil. the dist. and coil were checked and are good, all sparkwires are hooked up including coil wire. rotor is installed, but when cranked over,there is no fire at the plugs. do you have the original dist. with points? try putting it in to see if you have fire. this is a puzzler when everything checks, and power is suplied, but nothing comes out the other end.

[nrt69]

my plug wires are new also. i used the MSD street fire wires and custom made them to length.
if i remember correctly, the voltage we got from the coil was AFTER the coil. I dont remember checking power BEFORE the coil if that makes any difference.
no kill switch anywhere.
could the resistor on the wiper motor affect ignition voltage?

[nvrbdn]

im not sure where to go. with power coming from the coil, the dist is checked good, but no fire to the plugs. i think we need nacho. the guy is an electrical guru. mabey pm him and see what he says.

[Budnicks]

Is it going threw a ballast resister ?  if it is check the resister, power in & out, some systems can be run with out a ballast resister, are you getting 12 volt power to the coil or ignition box itself ? Heres how the Chrysler Electronic ignition is wired look at the brown or bark blue wires usually are you 12 volt DC voltage sources... Good luck

[nvrbdn]

good job budnicks now how different will it be in a system like mine? i have a flame thrower electronic ign. dist and coil. all i have to do is take the two wires from the dist and put one on pos and one on neg of the coil. i dont know if this is like the system he has or not.

[Budnicks]

good job budnicks now how different will it be in a system like mine? i have a flame thrower electronic ign. dist and coil. all i have to do is take the two wires from the dist and put one on pos and one on neg of the coil. i dont know if this is like the system he has or not.

I'm not familiar with them {Flame Thrower} much, seen them, but never used them... I was just using the diagram as a wiring reference mostly... I like the CEI & chrome box & just swap in the Gold box & coil at the track, unless I'm all out racing then I use a MSD 7 or 8 digital or a Super Mags on my Blown engines...

[RGA]

Check for power to the coil, check that the ground is pulsing when cranking engine. (with a good test light). If the ground is pulsing and there is power but there is no spark out of coil its a bad coil. If the ground is not pulsing there is a problem with the ignition MSD. I had the same problem turned out it was a bad ground to the module. Also some MSD's pulse the power and not the ground to the coil so check that, one side of the coil should be constant and the other side pulsed while cranking

[nrt69]

more info. spent the first part of today with a couple of friends reattacking.

the coil is getting 12 volts. it puts out 9 volts when cranking.
there is spark to the plugs but it is weak initially and if i keep checking for it. it goes away all together.
plugs are slightly wet but not enough to foul them or prevent start up.
ive bypassed the ballast resistor. one side gets 12 volts and the other side with the two ignition wires doesnt get anything at the start position. when cranking the side with 2 wires gets 9 volts to one of the wires. i believe this is correct based on the wiring diagram.
the MSD distributor and blaster coil are new and have been tested by MSD. they said theyre good. i have tested the wiring for the distrubutor according to MSD and it jumps around like they said it should.
everything is grounded.
there is no ignition box. the distributor has everything inside it. it is supposed to get 12 volts and it is (except when cranking).
ive tried a different set of plug wires, thats not the problem.
battery is fully charged.

it seems like the initial weak spark and then the lack of spark is not letting it fire up. what would cause a weak spark to go away during cranking??? remember, MSD said the distrub and coil checked out.

[nrt69]

would an inop ammeter gauge cause the car not to start up by causing a weak spark??

[68neverlate]

would an inop ammeter gauge cause the car not to start up by causing a weak spark??

It's possible, but not likely.  The situation where the ammeter would affect engine start is where the ammeter is cooked (and not conducting) and the alternator is disconnected, or dead.  That's assuming the ammeter is not bypassed.  If that were to occur, there would be no way for battery power to reach the coil through the ignition.  You sound like you have power at the + side of the coil, so I don't think that's happening in your case. 

Can you explain exactly which wires you connected together when you bypassed the ballast resistor??

[nrt69]

i had a two prong resistor with one wire on one side and 2 wires on the other. i forgot which ones went where, but two of the wires were ignition wires and one i think went to the starter? two dark blue wires and one brown one.

i simply unplugged the two sides from the resistor and plugged them into each other to bypass the resistor.

[greymag]

I don't know if this helps but make sure distributor rotor is making contact with cap. I smashed one down a little once & it drove me nuts until I figured it out. Bend it so it makes good contact.

[nrt69]

it turned out to be a bad battery. go figure. i almost pulled all my hair out troubleshooting this.

now im having problems with the car discharging at idle...severely discharging when braking or with the lights on. i remember reading a thread about this. could someone point me in that direction? how do i fix that problem?

[68neverlate]

it turned out to be a bad battery. go figure. i almost pulled all my hair out troubleshooting this.

now im having problems with the car discharging at idle...severely discharging when braking or with the lights on. i remember reading a thread about this. could someone point me in that direction? how do i fix that problem?

Before you jump to upgrades and wiring mods, you may just want to check the health of your alternator (take it out and bring it down to a shop that has a bench tester).  A healthy alternator might reduce the amount of discharge you're seeing (although it likely won't completely eliminate the problem).   

If the alternator checks out OK or after you replace it you still have discharge at idle and you want to address that problem, then you may want to check out the upgrades and modifications I recently made on my car to deal with the low output at idle issue: http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,84766.0.html

There are other less involved options out there as well (search "alternator output" on the "electric, gauges and lights" board to find them) if you don't mind bypassing the ammeter altogether (it won't work anymore after the wiring mods).  I didn't like the idea of my ammeter not working afterwards, so I undertook the mods I did.     

Whatever you do, if you decide to increase the output of your alternator, make sure that you increase the gauge of the wiring so it can handle the extra power.  The stock wiring is not designed to handle higher output alternators.  If you don't, you risk overheating the wiring (thermal meltdown) and/or starting a fire...       

[MoparManJim]

I'm hiving the same issue, rewired my charger up afew months back, followed the '68 diagram. But the thing is I get no sprak at the plug though. Could this be maybe due to having Ing1 and Ing2 wired up backwards? I have the points systems with a ms box like is in the photo above just above the alt for my voltage reg.

[404NOTFOUND]

I just switched to an MSD and now I'm also having the same issue. There is arcing occuring from the negative coil terminal to the top of the coil body. Pretty frustrating.

[MoparManJim]

Well so far, I get power up to the coil, which leads me to believe my coil went bad on me.

[Back N Black]

Well so far, I get power up to the coil, which leads me to believe my coil went bad on me.

Did you check the neg. side of the coil for a pulse when cranking?

[404NOTFOUND]

Well so far, I get power up to the coil, which leads me to believe my coil went bad on me.

Agreed. Me too. At one point I had some power to the plugs and it did try to fire up once. Everything is wired up right. Brand new Taylor 10.4 mm 40 ohm spark plug wires, the best there is. New cap & rotor. Still have arcing on the coil. I've got the plug wires disconnected so, I can't blame resistance at the plugs. It's gotta be the coil. I'm guessing the MSD is frying whats left of the coil. Too late to get a new one. I will get the best one I can on Monday.

[MoparManJim]

Well so far, I get power up to the coil, which leads me to believe my coil went bad on me.

Did you check the neg. side of the coil for a pulse when cranking?

No not yet, thanks for the reminder man!  . I'll check that tomorrow.

[MoparManJim]

So far when I hook up the neg side of my coil, I get nothing. I have power going to the coil but that kinda and seems to stop at the coil + post. After that it's all dead. I say I have a coil that died on me. 

[404NOTFOUND]

Ok. Problem solved on mine.  There was a small crack in the neck of the coil next to the negative terminal which allowed the spark in the center terminal to jump through the crack and ground out. Carbon tracking in the crack steadily made it worse until there was no spark at all. I installed a new MSD Blaster 2 coil. The system passed all tests with strong spark. Engine fired right up and ran much smoother and stronger than ever before. It idled higher and I was able to turn the idle down. Have a close look at your coil and even if it looks OK, replace it with a Blaster. They are not expensive and installation is dead simple. Let us know how it goes.

[MoparManJim]

Well even with the coil having one broken "-" peg on it. I hook up the coil to the battery and ran the middle coil wire over to the rad support just to see if it would jump. I hook up the battery to the coil an tapped the neg wire on a screw that was screwed into the rad support.. the coil wire started through spark, not to mention, I put a sprak plug into the wire just to see if the spark plug was any good or not, they both "are" an I also got charged alittle while with the metal piece of the coil hooked to the spark plug an my finger slightly on the metal!