Mopar ignition question

[Anonymous]

Hey guys...

The people on the Mopar boards seem to dislike helping  me because I'm asking a question about a Ram truck and not a cuda or charger, so screw them, I'll ask it here:

What happens when one of those ECU ignition boxes starts failing? Thats the one that every Chrysler product from '73 on till EFI or later had.

The one on this truck has gotten hot enough to liqiefy the epoxy in it until it ran down the firewall and onto the ground at some point in the past.

Only after I drove it home did I discover that there was some electrical event resulting in a charred negative cable, charred alt wire and a new voltage regulator..just like if the battery was hooked up backwards :shakehead:

I picked up a carbed '84 Ram with a 318 and that dumb thing started acting up out of the blue. Crank it up and it runs fine when the engine is cool, but once it warms up, if you gas on it, it'll break up and backfire out the tailpipes BAD, then finally die unless I let it fall back to idle.

I have some testing ahead of me on this but I'd like to get an idea about it first, thanks.

 

[73eldoconvert]

The mopar box is more or less an electronic relay.  Things that could make it hot would be like anything else, an overload.  I dont know how the trigger works in the dizzy on those but I would start looking there.  Also look at how the power to it is switched, perhaps something has gone wrong in the ignition switch or starting circuit and it is staying turned on all the time (even when engine is not running).  One other thing I have seen on fords (not sure if it happens to mopars but since its a remote box like the fords maybe) is since there is a ground connection between the dizzy and the box and the box is mounted to the fender which is grounded maybe something happened to the ground between the engine and body and the ground for the dizzy is trying to carry the whole load.

 

[v8440]

My advice is this:

First, take the ignition box you have and TTSA.  (Throw That Shit Away)

Go buy a box from any autoparts store on the planet.  They're cheap, like maybe less than $20 cheap.

If the problem continues, replace the ignition coil.  They've been known to go heat sensitive when they wear out.

If those things don't work, check the gap between the reluctor wheel and the pickup in the distributor.  I think you can loosen a screw and move the pickup coil around to set this.  Set it as close as you can get it without it actually touching the reluctor wheel.

I bet your problem will be solved somewhere in this process.

 

[cadlass]

Yeah what he said ,only don't use an ordinary feeler gauge to set your reluctor to pickup clearance, Mother Mopar didn't like that. Instead , a sliver of your favorite beverage can should get you into the .006-.010 range you'll want.(I don' know how you wine drinkers manage this one, but I'll guess that after enough wine it no longer matters)