New problem, ran rough then won't start. HELP

[Sloop0007]

I don't think it's the ballast resistor. The one I took out was still good. Just changed it to be sure. Its not wet, been really dry since the rain. Should be dried out by now, been a week or more. I didn't check the pick up cause I thought I had it fixed when I changed out the ign coil and it started and ran fine. I figured the ign coil was to blame. If the pick up was bad, why would changing out the ign coil fix the problem? Well temporarily anyway... I was assuming the problem was upstream like the ign box. The replacement box is $63 at O'Reillys. I'm gonna check the ign coil again and the pick up before I go buy the box. Wish me luck...

[PwrWgnDrvr]

Electrical components often will work fine when cold, then fail when they warm up.

[nytemuvr]

Electrical components often will work fine when cold, then fail when they warm up.

I.E. the coil or any componet that has a large amount of windings(as the distributor pick-up, altenator). It will take more than a couple of days to dry all those plugs. Also when you drive it the air flowing though the engine bay will blow water back into the plugs on the fire wall. Could also be corroded wire connectors that have corroded almost all the way thought or the crimped on terminals. Always solder the treminals and splices you have to repair. Just because wires and connectors show continuity when hot or cold, doesn't mean your connections are neccisarily good. my 2 cents

[Sloop0007]

I changed the ecu and ign coil this morning. Still nothing. I checked all wire connections and tightened all ground connections. Still nothing. I tried pulling a spark by holding the primary coil wire to the frame and I'm getting nothing. Does anybody know how much resistance the ballast resistor is supposed to have? I get 0.6 ohms when I test it. I've got voltage coming out of the ign coil but no spark when you hold the wire to the frame with the key on. How do you even test the pick up coil in the distributor? All I see is 2 wires going into a white donut looking thing around the shaft?

[PwrWgnDrvr]

I don't know how u would test it, other than just buy a new one and swap it.
Not sure what wire u are holding to the frame, but holding any wire to the frame will not make a spark. The spark is made when the negative wire from the coil is touched to the frame and then removed. At the moment of removal, the spark is created. Which is the same as when the points "open" in a points system.
Every symptom u have described, and every thing u have done, is exactly what I dealt with/did on a 64 last spring, until the pick up coil was swapped in the distr.

[nytemuvr]

I don't know how u would test it, other than just buy a new one and swap it.
Not sure what wire u are holding to the frame, but holding any wire to the frame will not make a spark. The spark is made when the negative wire from the coil is touched to the frame and then removed. At the moment of removal, the spark is created. Which is the same as when the points "open" in a points system.
Every symptom u have described, and every thing u have done, is exactly what I dealt with/did on a 64 last spring, until the pick up coil was swapped in the distr.

The windings in the pick/up are real small, like sewing thread, where they connect inside the to the outside could be broken (interment short) The clearance for the pick-up to the "star"(reluctor) on the shaft should be .008". Another thought would be to make sure your main power wire at the alternator, the wire inside that rubber insulating boot corrodes and you don't see it because the wire connects inside that boot (intermentant short), same with the field wire and the 4 or 5 wire rubber socket to the ECU, seen them burn inside too. Any wire with plastic as part of the terminal is suspect (wires corrode inside them and look good, bit aren't). Like PwrWgnDrvr said, "change the pick-up" with a new one from the store, they'll only like $5. It sounds like an old Harley Manual...replace part until you find the bad part and exchange... Intermentant shorts are the hardest and most irritating to diagnose. A whole new distributor like a Cardone rebuilt is about $40,don't know how long you've had that distributor. When I've had the kind of problems you are, 90% of the time it is a bad wire or connector (41 years working on Mopars) That's all my 2 centses.... hope the pics help, dual ballast has the same instructions for repair....good luck.

[Sloop0007]

My distributor looks a lot different on the inside than that one. Mine has a spider looking thing with eight arms instead of a reluctor. And I don't have the plate with the coil or magnet on it. Mine has a white donut shaped pick up coil with an arm that attaches to the vacuum advance. I looked and asked the parts stores with no luck finding the coil. I can't even find the whole distributor that matches mine. The housing looks identical to stock points distributor. Is it possible someone swapped the guts with electronic ignition distributor parts? With the set up being ford electric ign, I'm running into problems. I don't know what this set up is for to look up stuff. Plus I'm a noob. I got the spider looking thing and the coil out of the distributor and panicked so I put it back in. I was worried I was gonna mess it up and I couldn't figure out how to seperate the coil from the spider thing. So I freaked out and started looking for whole distributors to replace mine. I'll try and figure it out again tomorrow...

[Sloop0007]

OK here's the latest. The distributor is stamped with the original points type distributor. But the guts have been changed. The armature and pick up coil are outta who knows what. Nobody has seen it before and they can't find it either. We looked through all the big binders, tried cross referencing but nothing even close. No part number on the coil or armature. Really pissing me off cause my brother will be taking his international scout to Christmas and I really wanted to blow his doors off with the BB swept. Is there another distributor for another motor that would fit my 383 and accept electronic ign?

[PwrWgnDrvr]

Just get an EI distr at the auto parts store for the 383 and throw that converted trash away! If they cant figure out what u need, find a partsman who can.

[nytemuvr]

Ditto on PwrWgnDrvr with getting a rebuilt distrbutor. I think, pretty sure, that the points and EI housing are the same, they just changed the internals. I've changed the internals to EI from a points housing on a Dart twice and bth ran like a champs. Mopar brand is almost bulletproof. MSD and the other brands advertisements are BS. The Mopar kit is way overpriced. A rebuilt distributor won't have any slop (unless the bushing is worn). Don't use the ECU orange box and for sure not the chrome box. BTW, clean the plug connections, I use a .22 gun cleaning wire brush chucked in a drill.

[Sloop0007]

Does anybody know the difference in shaft length between the B and RB distributor? My brother gave me a hei for 440 and saw where some guys were cutting the shaft down to fit instead of paying $65 for the adapter. Said it takes like 15 minutes and he's a machinist so I'm sure he could do it. If not I'll just pull the old one when I get back from Christmas vacation to compare. Thanks and merry Christmas from Texas y'all...

[nytemuvr]

Does anybody know the difference in shaft length between the B and RB distributor? My brother gave me a hei for 440 and saw where some guys were cutting the shaft down to fit instead of paying $65 for the adapter. Said it takes like 15 minutes and he's a machinist so I'm sure he could do it. If not I'll just pull the old one when I get back from Christmas vacation to compare. Thanks and merry Christmas from Texas y'all...

My interchange book only show 3 distributors for 440s of the 68-74 era....One with EI('73 and later) and 2 for early 440 and 440-6paks(dual points). Nothing mentioning B or RB blocks difference. I'm a small block guy, doesn't RB blocks have a higher deck and the adaptor is for clearence problems maybe. But I have found a few mistakes in this non-authorized interchange book by Paul Herd.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

[dodgeboykim]

s anybody know the difference in shaft length between the B and RB distributor? My brother gave me a hei for 440 and saw where some guys were cutting the shaft down to fit instead of paying $65 for the adapter. Said it takes like 15 minutes and he's a machinist so I'm sure he could do it. If not I'll just pull the old one when I get back from Christmas vacation to compare. Thanks and merry Christmas from Texas y'all...

You can use your buggered distributor for shaft length so you can shorten the R B shaft. That said I would be concerned about whether the shaft was hardened at the tip and what could possibly happen at the worst possible time if the end tang snaps off the modified distributor. Maybe get a rebuilt B distributor and use your screwed one for the core. Most times they never look to see if they have the same part returned for the core in the box

[Sloop0007]

We used the old distributor for reference. It was about 5/8" difference. He made an adapter housing and shaft so he can run small block Mopar distributors in his 69 scout. He knows a lot more bout all this than me. He said the whole shaft is plenty strong and that the distributor shaft doesn't have much if any stress on it. Gonna install tonight weather permitting. New 8mm wires and ign coil too...

[nytemuvr]

s anybody know the difference in shaft length between the B and RB distributor? My brother gave me a hei for 440 and saw where some guys were cutting the shaft down to fit instead of paying $65 for the adapter. Said it takes like 15 minutes and he's a machinist so I'm sure he could do it. If not I'll just pull the old one when I get back from Christmas vacation to compare. Thanks and merry Christmas from Texas y'all...

You can use your buggered distributor for shaft length so you can shorten the R B shaft. That said I would be concerned about whether the shaft was hardened at the tip and what could possibly happen at the worst possible time if the end tang snaps off the modified distributor. Maybe get a rebuilt B distributor and use your screwed one for the core. Most times they never look to see if they have the same part returned for the core in the box

They never look at the returning core because 95% of clerks don't know what the part looked like in the first place, just a number on a box to most of them. I do it all the time. Let us know what happens so we can learn a little somthing new.

[nytemuvr]

Here's the distributor you probably need, check the compatibily tab to see if your truck is listed, it should get you close to the one you need..... http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detai ... istributor

[Sloop0007]

Question, I know the #1 cylinder must be at top dead center and the rotor should be pointing at the cylinder but when I get the cylinder at top dead cylinder, the groove where you stab the distributor is facing the back of the motor. So the rotor is facing the firewall too. And if you turn it @ to where you can stab it again, its facing the radiator. Not even close to #1 cylinder. My question is, does the slot with the gear on it where you stab the distributor turn at a different ratio than the motor turns over? Do I need to keep bumping it over till the slot is facing the #1 cylinder and #1 cylinder is top dead center?

[dodgeboykim]

Question, I know the #1 cylinder must be at top dead center and the rotor should be pointing at the cylinder but when I get the cylinder at top dead cylinder,

If you have the # 1 cylinder at TDC and the Dist roter is out 180 degree's then keep turning till piston TDC and #1 are correct. If they never line up then you may have a shot timing chain. I assume that you know the firing order for your motor and what position the # 1 is at and #2 and so on .

[wally426ci]

The rotor is offset from the slot in the gear. If your gear is off you can sometimes use a big flathead screwdriver to turn it (disengage it from the cam)

[PwrWgnDrvr]

The rotor does NOT point at the #1 cylinder!!!
It doesn't matter what the rotor is pointing toward on the engine.
Set #1 piston at TDC on the COMPRESSION stroke.
With #1 at TDC, whatever spark plug wire hole on the distr CAP that the rotor points to, that is the wire which will go to the #1 spark plug. This could be any one of the 8 holes, depending on how the distr drive gear was installed.