No spark when cranking

[flyinlow]

pulled the distributer and spun it with key on had regular spark, put it back together and still the same... no start condition.

Does the rotor spin while the engine is being cranked?   (not being a wise guy, just checking)

[flyinlow]

Battery, fully charged, reading 12.6
Will spark with key on, key off and bumping it, as soon as the key gets to the crank/ start position, it loses all voltage down to zero.
/quote]



Ignition 2 feed is not getting to the coil during cranking. Start at the ignition switch and work your way toward the coil .Check at each junction with a test light. 

[flyinlow]

And no, the car never ran or charged properly from the get go.

Even without the alternator,  the car can be driven on just the battery for at least a couple of hours and the engine should run normally.

[Canadian1968]

Key in the off position and you get spark?? That should not be . I think you have short / broken wire some where in your harness , on the passenger side of the fire wall.

Do you have another starter relay you could try

[A383Wing]

no, he said when you turn off the key, it sparks maybe one time...which always for me was the ECU box went bad

[HANDM]

I have had these cars for over twenty years and have NEVER had this much spark trouble.....

Just got through verifying that the ECU is GOOD, put it in the Chally and it fired right up

Tried powering the coil directly from the battery, still won't start

Swapped the coil with the one in the chally, Chally fired right up

Both blue wires coming from the ignition switch have 12 with key on and immediate zero upon crank position whatever that means. Both switches do the same thing so I am sure that neither is bad.

At this point, I am simply giving up on the thing untill I can afford a new main harness. All others are new and being the cheap barstard that I am, decided that the old one was fine....... Obviously a huge mistake 

[PlainfieldCharger]

I really believe you have a bad engine or chassis ground. If you have spark when manually turning the distributor lose spark just by cranking the motor with the starter it sounds like the starters amperage draw is overwhelming the ignition ground.

[Canadian1968]

I really believe you have a bad engine or chassis ground. If you have spark when manually turning the distributor lose spark just by cranking the motor with the starter it sounds like the starters amperage draw is overwhelming the ignition ground.

He has a point . What is the only thing that changes when you turn the key to crank??  You power the yellow wire that runs to the starter relay , which in turn clicks the relay and energizes the starter solinoide and your starter cranks the motor . 

You said blue wires have 12v on run and 0 in crank. If your wires are disconnected from the ballast that is what should happen. The blue wire is powered threw the ballast from the brown wire during crank.

And the reverse applies brown wire should have 12 in crank an 0 in run. With the ballast hooked up you will get whatever ballast allows . I believe in your first post you said 8 volts?!

Your sure your ballast is still good right? You didn't fry it during all this testing?!

Also why not disconnect power to the starter and then take some readings ??

[HANDM]

I really believe you have a bad engine or chassis ground. If you have spark when manually turning the distributor lose spark just by cranking the motor with the starter it sounds like the starters amperage draw is overwhelming the ignition ground.

He has a point . What is the only thing that changes when you turn the key to crank??  You power the yellow wire that runs to the starter relay , which in turn clicks the relay and energizes the starter solinoide and your starter cranks the motor . 

You said blue wires have 12v on run and 0 in crank. If your wires are disconnected from the ballast that is what should happen. The blue wire is powered threw the ballast from the brown wire during crank.

And the reverse applies brown wire should have 12 in crank an 0 in run. With the ballast hooked up you will get whatever ballast allows . I believe in your first post you said 8 volts?!

Your sure your ballast is still good right? You didn't fry it during all this testing?!

Also why not disconnect power to the starter and then take some readings ??

Ballast is good, 12 in 8 out
I did find that the yellow wire to the relay has 12 when cranking (obviously) so I will disconnect it and try the crank position and see....

I did have several different ground issues after reassembly after paint but upon reading up, I promptly scraped all offending paint and eliminated (I thought) all issues and the car, at that point ran great till it developed the alternator/ regulator issues and then finally this years problem.

[PlainfieldCharger]

It is very hard to find weak grounds measuring voltage at "no load conditions". I recommend removing the ground wirers and cleaning them really good along with the mating surfaces. After cleaning the surfaces Might be a great idea to run another direct negative wire from the battery to the starter and trying starting it then.

[HANDM]

Pulled the dash to get a better look at the harness, found that the brown (ig 2) was disconnected from the plug. Pushed it back in and now....... still not sparking, in fact it only sparks with key on amd  key off and no longer sparks when bumped....... Gonna check voltage and all grounds later.......

[Canadian1968]

It's been a couple days . How are you making out

[HANDM]

It's been a couple days . How are you making out

Thanks for checking up    I haven't dinked with it for a couple days now as my dog had to have TPLO surgery ( look it up, it's gnarly but cool)

I dig get a chance to mess around for a minute yesterday and found with the brown wire hooked up (idiot me, I should have remembered that from last year) that there is still no no positive results within all of the circuits that I have been testing. 

There is NO voltage drain as confirmed by a previously posted test method
The yellow wire has 6.1 while cranking (should it be 12?)
Brown wire has 6.1 volts while in start and run (should it be 12 at start and 0 at run?)
Blue wires 9 at crank and 12 at run  (correct right?)

Found that if I remove the brown wire from the switch, it has 9.1 volts coming in while key is on (correct or weird?)

Thanks

[Canadian1968]

It's been a couple days . How are you making out

Thanks for checking up    I haven't dinked with it for a couple days now as my dog had to have TPLO surgery ( look it up, it's gnarly but cool)

I dig get a chance to mess around for a minute yesterday and found with the brown wire hooked up (idiot me, I should have remembered that from last year) that there is still no no positive results within all of the circuits that I have been testing. 

There is NO voltage drain as confirmed by a previously posted test method
The yellow wire has 6.1 while cranking (should it be 12?)
Brown wire has 6.1 volts while in start and run (should it be 12 at start and 0 at run?)
Blue wires 9 at crank and 12 at run  (correct right?)

Found that if I remove the brown wire from the switch, it has 9.1 volts coming in while key is on (correct or weird?)

Thanks

Where are you doing these test?? At the ballast? Or right at the ignition switch??
Your 6 volts on brown during crank is very low regardless of where the test is being done. There should be 11v. @ that wire , it will be less than battery since the starter does draw some on crank.

You said that your blue wire has 9v on crank?? That is impossible if your brown only has 6 . Like I said the blue wire is actually powered threw the resistor on crank. There is no power coming from the switch at this time. At least there shouldn't be !!!

It sounds like you are performing your test with the ballast connected . Do them with them disconnected .

As for your comment of 9v from brown on the switch. So basically you have pulled the wire out of the switch and are probing directly into the harness on the back of the switch?? Again this should be 12v or close to it on crank. 

Test the back of the switch where brown would go. Plug it in and then test at ballast connection ( unplugged of course) if these two numbers are different then. There is either a break in the wire or bulkhead connect is crap . Those are the ONLY things that can be wrong as the brown wire is single wire by itself with nothing else connected to it.

Start with that and see what you get

[HANDM]

Hey guys,

I just wanted to update this thread as I have finally gotten the Charger running again.

I removed the distributer, took it back to the place of purchase, had them look up the warrantee, find it's lifetime, get another, install and now it runs.

As mentioned previously, the pickup was the probable culprit but alas, I am unsure as to what the real cause was.

As for the charging issue, I installed a electronic regulator and it now is charging properly.

Finally as sort of a gift to the poor thing, I got some new tires and threw on the old 14's with hubcaps.....

later

[HANDM]

Of course, the thing is once again eating alternators and/ or regulators as it is not charging AGAIN!

Selling it is looking better and better........ I'm serious, it's just not worth it anymore, I know you all will say "step back" or "give it a few days" but at this point, I just don't know anymore..... it's tough to enjoy a car when you can't even drive it.