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71 Charger No Run issue

mrsnicks

Well-Known Member
Local time
2:03 PM
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Feb 19, 2013
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Location
cameron, nc
1971 Dodge Charger 318 auto. Rebuilt engine, rebuilt carb, rebuilt transmission. A week ago after alignment and on it's maiden voyage it was running fine, drove it for 2 days without trouble.

Day 3 went to take it on an hour drive to work, about 3 mins into the drive a backfire and started running rough, and then died. Got it pulled over to the side of the road and it would crank, run rough, die. Crank run rough die. Crank run good, give gas, die. Crank run good, give gas, stayed running drove the hour to work no problems. On the way home running @70 on the highway had some hesitation, stumbling for about 30 seconds but went away.

Day 4 cranked it up got a half mile down the road, ran rough died. Took it back home to sit.

Day 5 cranks up, runs rough dies.

Day 6 - present will not run.

So basically a sporadic random problem has progressed into a total failure of something. I know it's getting fuel, I also tried putting my wife's carb on there and no change. I have replaced the ballast resistor and the coil. It has a new distributor, new cap, new rotor, new points set correctly, new wires and new spark plugs. I have spark from the coil during crank. I used a test light on the coil and both sides of the ballast resistor with the key in the run position and have juice. I have a multi-meter but don't really know how to use it.

I'm leaning towards ignition system issues. Is there a way to bypass the ignition switch? I've been using a hand/remote starter. Any ideas would be appreciated.
 
Ignition coil or real dirty gas tank plugged the fuel. Sounds like weak spark
 
Ignition coil or real dirty gas tank plugged the fuel. Sounds like weak spark

Already replaced the coil with a new one. Brand new fuel tank and sending unit. Have a inline fuel filter before the pump and one after the pump. It's getting fuel to the carb, I do not think fuel related.

Patrick

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sounds like you have a sticky float and it is causing it flood

Tried a known working good carb off my wife's car, no change in the running of my car.

Patrick
 
Already replaced the coil with a new one. Brand new fuel tank and sending unit. Have a inline fuel filter before the pump and one after the pump. It's not fuel related.

Patrick

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Tried a known working good carb off my wife's car, no change in the running of my car.

Patrick

lol I really need to wake up first before I start with a reply
 
If was backfiring like a machine gun once it warmed up its spark even a new coil can be junk or if you have a coil that is only for a vertical installation set horizontally could toast it.....
 
Did you check all your basics? compression (yes I read its a rebuilt engine)spark, fuel. Pull a wire for spark check, at the plug, fuel pressure gauge to verify you have fuel getting to the carb. Loose wires/ grounds. I would lean towards ignition as well.
 
It's in you're fire loose wire some thing... can you move the distributor with out looking the hold down..... on a 318 can be hard to tighten and loosen up

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A bad ignition switch can do that especially if it's old and you have a lot of heavy keys on it.

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On a new rebuild it could be something you missed or a defective part or something unrelated that got jealous of the other new parts and decided to crap out out of spite.... be patient you will find it start from scratch and check all over.
 
Nothing said about the ignition condenser...have you checked, or replaced it? In or on the distributor, whatever kind you have. Lol. Those things will put you on the side of the road.

Multimeters are EASY to use. Just do some research on them. Pretty dang handy.
 
Nothing said about the ignition condenser...have you checked, or replaced it? In or on the distributor, whatever kind you have. Lol. Those things will put you on the side of the road.

Multimeters are EASY to use. Just do some research on them. Pretty dang handy.

BIG X2 here^!!!
Sounds like a typical condenser failure to me, ran fan then ran rough then a no-run situation.
A bad condenser will keep your car from running, you can replace coils, ballasts, plugs, etc etc as much as you want but if that condenser is toast it's not going matter.
 
...also I'd put on one of those clear, glass fuel filters.

easy, cheap, work well, and...

...you can see if it gets lots of trash/rust in the bowl.

That's been the problem on a few of my older cars.

If you see a lot of crap. find the rusty metal line section.
 
If was backfiring like a machine gun once it warmed up its spark even a new coil can be junk or if you have a coil that is only for a vertical installation set horizontally could toast it.....

Nope. Just a single backfire. Coil is mounted horizontally in the factory bracket on the factory manifold.

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Did you check all your basics? compression (yes I read its a rebuilt engine)spark, fuel. Pull a wire for spark check, at the plug, fuel pressure gauge to verify you have fuel getting to the carb. Loose wires/ grounds. I would lean towards ignition as well.

120+/_ across all cylinders. Have spark @ the coil wire. Don't have a fuel pressure gauge, but put my thumb on the fuel line @ the carb and it's pumping with pressure.

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Nothing said about the ignition condenser...have you checked, or replaced it? In or on the distributor, whatever kind you have. Lol. Those things will put you on the side of the road.

Multimeters are EASY to use. Just do some research on them. Pretty dang handy.

The condenser is new came with the reman distributor. I can throw another one on there real quick this afternoon.

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...also I'd put on one of those clear, glass fuel filters.

easy, cheap, work well, and...

...you can see if it gets lots of trash/rust in the bowl.

That's been the problem on a few of my older cars.

If you see a lot of crap. find the rusty metal line section.

I have a clear plastic Fram in-line filter before the pump and after the pump. They look fine.

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It's in you're fire loose wire some thing... can you move the distributor with out looking the hold down..... on a 318 can be hard to tighten and loosen up

- - - Updated - - -

A bad ignition switch can do that especially if it's old and you have a lot of heavy keys on it.

- - - Updated - - -

On a new rebuild it could be something you missed or a defective part or something unrelated that got jealous of the other new parts and decided to crap out out of spite.... be patient you will find it start from scratch and check all over.

The key ring is not key heavy. Just the ignition key the trunk key.
 
if you have an old plug handy recheck spark at the end of your distributor wire, sounds like it may be between your coil and plug as others are suggesting.
 
........ and the winner is ........................ Ignition Condenser.!
 
Nothing said about the ignition condenser...have you checked, or replaced it? In or on the distributor, whatever kind you have. Lol. Those things will put you on the side of the road.

Multimeters are EASY to use. Just do some research on them. Pretty dang handy.

great call Miller

........ and the winner is ........................ Ignition Condenser.!

glad you got man excellent
 
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