Reliable Mopar ECU ?

[gary h]

I bought a new Orange box from Steve white Mopar last year, Never worked well from beginning. Then car would not start, I recently connected an older Standard box and it fired right up.
I am going back to points for this reason. The car is a '71 GTX. Not interested in MSD or petronix just a stock appearing Mopar ECU that is reliable, any thoughts before I convert back to points ?

 

[Joske2]

I use the rev-o-nator, works perfect for me.

 

[65-440]

Hi-rev 7500 from jegs

 

[kiwigtx]

I use the rev-o-nator, works perfect for me.

I have several of those - my friends use them also....a great ECU option.

 

[PeteBell68]

Bought one at the local Dodge dealer and works great .

 

[WileERobby]

I bought a new Orange box from Steve white Mopar last year, Never worked well from beginning. Then car would not start, I recently connected an older Standard box and it fired right up.
I am going back to points for this reason. The car is a '71 GTX. Not interested in MSD or petronix just a stock appearing Mopar ECU that is reliable, any thoughts before I convert back to points ?

Alot of the new modules are made in you-know-where, and its a crap shoot if you get a good or bad one.

 

[65-440]

Why not pertronix ? It goes inside the distributor cap, nobody will ever know ....

 

[Nacho-RT74]

sometimes is about luck.

You'll find on lot of threads about MP moudles getting damaged sooner than expected or even barelly last long two weeks ( Myself it happened with Chromed ones ). Lot of threads about

putting aside the MP ones options on stock look are from lower to high price Standard LX101 ( or 100 if 5 pins ), HiRev 7500 and Rev-N-Nator.

there are some Filkho CH500 units on the cheap ( below $20 ) being sold on ebay at this moment what I know are a great units. I'm pretty sure they are like a brand called COBRA back in the days, which I got one and was a GREEEEAT unit for street car. A friend of mine got one of those Filkho and is happy. Didn't listed it on the previous list because the stock is unknown being an ebay seller, but the other ones are still being sold on stores.

Then we have the ones what replaced the MP units and ful conversion kits being sold on Summit. Unknown manufacturer. Some other generic sellers are offering orange units even on similar converison kits including the same tha MP offered to the conversion.

FBO is selling a "look alike" stock piece but ballast needs to be bypassed per their specs description. They sell in fact a jumper wire to not hack up the ballast and related wiring, although there is a cleaner way to make it.

 

[Ranger16]

I got my orange box from Jegs. So far no complaints. It's been in use for about 2 years so far, but I do carry a spare. The reason I had to replace the first one was that my regulator failed and it was being over charged. They don't seem to like that.

 

[Daves69]

..but I do carry a spare......

That's likely the ticket!
Solid connections and grounding. Maybe a stand off to help heat dissipation.

 

[Prusakowski]

Concerning the HiRev 7500 kit sold by Rick...I followed the instructions that came with the kit...but the car won't crank. I'm posting a few photos here...perhaps someone can see an error in my wiring set-up. The vehicle is a 1979 Dodge with a 318. I'm a little unsure on what side the positive terminal should go on the ballast resistor....

 

[Sam69sat]

What about hei conversion?

Edit: nevermind, didnt' see the part about wanting to go back to points.

HEI conversion question

Has anyone done one of these Hidden conversions . I can't find any links on it and curious how good it works.

www.forabodiesonly.com

 

[RJRENTON]

I bought a new Orange box from Steve white Mopar last year, Never worked well from beginning. Then car would not start, I recently connected an older Standard box and it fired right up.
I am going back to points for this reason. The car is a '71 GTX. Not interested in MSD or petronix just a stock appearing Mopar ECU that is reliable, any thoughts before I convert back to points ?

EXCELLENT DECISION going back to points ignition. All you need to is recurve the points distributor to provide a total of 35° all in by 2500 RPM....15° Initial (static) and 20° by the distributor....vacuum advance is optional. Ray @HALLIFAXHOPS can provide exactly what you need....he's on this site.....email him. Just remember the old Confucius saying: "fancy gizmos don't work but if they do work, they'll stop working at the most inopportune time" and cost you aggravation and towing charges. Just my opinion of course....
BOB RENTON

 

[AR67GTX]

I guess you are wanting to retain an ECU to trigger the points and take some load off them?

 

[Nacho-RT74]

Concerning the HiRev 7500 kit sold by Rick...I followed the instructions that came with the kit...but the car won't crank. I'm posting a few photos here...perhaps someone can see an error in my wiring set-up. The vehicle is a 1979 Dodge with a 318. I'm a little unsure on what side the positive terminal should go on the ballast resistor....

View attachment 1571053

View attachment 1571054

Won’t crank or won’t start?

the ignition system hasn’t nothing to do with the cranking system. If the engine/starter motor is not cranking you have a diff problem what could be anything between ign switch, damaged relay, not operative NSS/clutch pedal switch (depending on year and model) or even starter motor solenoid?

ballast doesn’t have sense. You can plug the wires on either terminals. Diff is where you splice the harness for power included with the kit. The blue with yellow trace wire on new harness must be spliced on to the blue wire coming from firewall running to ballast, not to the other two which are brown and also blue if pre70 cars. Althought can be spliced also to the blue wire arriving to regulator and labeled as IGN on regulator for old mech regs(pre70).

but if your car is 79 it was already running on ECU, so why needing a new wiring? Unless damaged it should have been a plug and play job. Althought late 70s included several other accs related to ign system and lean burn system.

 

[Prusakowski]

Nacho-RT74...won't crank. You bring up a great point....I'm going to check out the starter relay. For this project...I'm replacing the old lean-burn carb and distributor with the 7500. Many thanks for the feedback!

 

[Nacho-RT74]

Ok.. as far I know on later 70s Mopars the starter relay solenoid works diff than earlier 70s providing the ballast bypass from there instead being from ign switch. But the basic circuit for cranking still works the same.

Yellow wire arriving to IGN prong of Relay. It should get power as soon you try to crank. If not, the problem comes from the ign switch, bulkhead plug &/or any other plug on the line (plug down steering column).

If you get power there trying to crank it from ign switch and still nothing you could have problems at:

-NSS at transmission not providing the ground on P or N if auto to close the relay circuit. NSS itself, or plug, or wiring between NSS and Relay. You can jump out that prong straight to chassis ground to discard. If you ground the at terminal (labeled as Ground on relay itself) and you get to crank then you found where is the problem. It could be even the transmission linkage out of adjustment or with some play due worn parts getting the gear linkage not propperly seated at P or N to provide that ground on the lever system inside.

-if you are getting ground at ground terminal (either from NSS or jumping out the ground terminal with chassis) and still nothing from ign switch the relay itself could be bad. You can jump out the big stud with the SOL terminal. A screwdriver or wrench can be used. Some sparks will come out, don’t be scared, nothing wrong with it. If still starter motor doesn’t engage with this, then the problem is on starter motor itself or wiring arriving to starter motor.

 

[Prusakowski]

Nacho-RT74...many thanks. One wire from the lean-burn harness was freaking out on the starter relay....I had to ground it rather than it going directly to the starter relay. All is well now!

 

[toolmanmike]

@HALIFAXHOPS has electronics that are top notch products and have been tested. The old ECU's will last for years. The new ones produced fail immediately or shortly thereafter.