chuck4788
West of the Middle
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john b wrote:Please do not touch the carbureator! Fix the ignition first or you will compound your problems! If it ran fine when you last ran it likely it isn't the carb. Do not just throw darts at it diagnose it first! If it is the old points system it should be easy and reasonable to do!!!IMHO Many things mentioned above just do not happen while sitting but ignition failures will! Almost 40 years of fixing & maintaining all types of these critters tell me this! Good luck!!
Yes I agree.
Couple of points:
It ran when you parked it. Did a thief steal the gas?
You did an ignition tune up and it won't start. It didn't fire with starting fluid. My conclusion is it is ignition, not fuel.
Always do the easy checks first so check for spark before doing anything else. Because you changed the ignition system I suspect that is where you will find the problem. A 1978 ignition probably had points, I haven't fussed with MoPars for a very long time so I don't remember when they converted from points. It is very easy to set the points at the wrong gap, the points can be checked with a dwell meter. Another common problem is not getting all 9 high tension wires in the correct position on the new cap. And last was the rotor installed properly. You should check all of these before before testing or replacing components that were not involved in the tune up.
If you have spark then check for fuel; pull the air cleaner and look inside the carb, work the thottle a couple of times and you should see fuel spray each time the thottle is opened. If no fuel then loosen the fuel line at the carb, fuel should spray as you loosen. Next crank the engine and fuel should spray, only crank about one second because you do not want a lot of fuel spraying around. Immediately clean up any spilled fuel. If have fuel at the carb then the problem may be the fuel filter at the carb or a stuck float inside the carb. If fuel does not spray then you have a fuel delivery problem; could be an empty tank, a plugged filter, a bad pump, or even a collapsed rubber fuel line (the liner collapses and blocks flow).
Good luck
Chuck
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1995brave
San Antonio, TX
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Quote:The symptom of a failed ballast resistor is that the engine would fire up while the key is in the start position but die out as soon as you release the key. The coil gets 12 volts from the ignition system during startup but switches to the ballast circuitry which reduces the voltage to the coil to 9 volts when the key is in the run position.
This is true, but on some they used a dual ballast resistor(mine had it). Dodge found that using full battery voltage at start caused the coil to burn out and just one ballast was not enough to start the engine so they used a dual ballast, one side(lower resistance) to start the engine and the other side(higher resistance) to run. I have had mine fail on both sides of the ballast resistor at different times. I even though about splitting the wire connectors so i could put two bad ballast resistors in and pick the good from each side (start&run) to make a complete one. Those were my young and foolish days of drinking and woman chasing, now that i'm older i'm drinking older whiskey and chasing older women.
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Lyman
Colorado Springs, CO
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Did you verify that there's a rotor in the distributor, and it's clean? Is it turning when you crank the engine? Is spark getting to the distributor from the coil? Are the plug wires in the right order from the distributor to the plugs, based on top dead center and firing order for that engine? Is spark getting to the plugs?
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Daveinet
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Starting fluid or WD40 will confirm if it is a fuel problem. A small shot down the carb will make it fire if its not getting fuel. Don't spray a bunch, if it doesn't fire, its not a fuel problem. Then at least you know where to look.
Dave
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Pusher
Albuquerque, NM
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by 78 Chrysler had converted all ther ignitions to pointless. Pull the center coil wire off and hold it close to the engine and turn it over. This will check the ignition system. If you see spark then you have a fuel problem. You have replaced the cap and wires so just to be sure pull a spark plug wire, put a screwdriver in the boot and hold it close to the engine and turn it over. If you see spark it is definetly a fuel problem. If not it could be a bad rotor under the distributor cap. Take off the air cleaner and look down the carb while pumping the foot feed. You should see gas squirt out. You will have to hold the choke open. It is dangerous to try to start the engine with the air cleaner off because it might back fire. I don't know about your MH as to where the fuel filters are located but that could be a problem.
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spicie69
utah
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Thank you everyone for responding. My husband is going to check it out this weekend againa nd try the ballist resistor. Its getting spark but its yellow so its not a strong spark(hubby told me its supposed to be blue spark) so we did down it to something with the spark problem.
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David0725
Florida
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Look on the firewall for a ceramic block with 2 wires going to it. This is the ballast resistor and you could also look for the ignition control module which should also be on firewall, it is a square box with a 4 or 5 pin plug. Both of these are responsible for spark.
Ken
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