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engine dieing problem seems to be temp related

magvan

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my 67 R/T has a engine dying problem and it seems to be temperature related.
background, it had a points distributor with a pertronix when i bought it. my experience with pertronix is its gonna take a crap at some point. So it did super bowl sunday 2015 pulling into a show, right in front of everyone.
i installed stock mopar electronic ignition. a NOS orange box (when they were still made in the USA) a rebuilt distributor, crane coil, and a NOS tan mopar cap and rotor while i was at it. within a month the ballast resistor went out (it was still the old one, ok)
so over the last year or so ive had a couple ballast resistors go out, ok whatever

recently i came out from lunch and crank but no start, changed teh resistor and it started, went back to work, shut off and restarted it. came out to go home, started, drove 2 miles home, shut it off and no start.
so a couple of days goes by mess with it fires up, drive it all day no problems.
then its back same old motor shuts off like i turned off the key problem and wont restart. of course in the middle of an intersection or traffic everytime.
change ballast fires up and go back to work. test the old ballast with a meter and its good.hmmm
basically the same thing has happened a few times now. until today. same old dies and no start, push my beast out of traffic and sit there. i figured ill just have it towed home but after about 15 min i tried the key and it fires right up and i take it home.

so, what would be temp sensitive that driving 2 miles would get heated up enough to not work? distributor pickup? ignition box? coil? all this stuff has about 2500 miles on it. i run the same crane ps50 (USA made) coil on my 2 other 440 mopars with electronic ignition (checked with crane for compatibility before i bought them)and they will start in about 1/2 of a second, i mean you touch the key and they are running.
any experience in the same problem?
 
I'm no expert but it sounds like you might be losing voltage at your box intermittantly...
 
i thought so too, with the car running, i have shaken, bent, jiggled every wire to see if there is a break or bad connection and not even a hickup in running. ive even unplugged and replugged all of the connections. installed a new (nos mopar) ignition switch because the old one you sometimes had to release the key just slightly to get it to fire.
 
I'm no expert but it sounds like you might be losing voltage at your box intermittantly...
but after today im convinced that it is a heat problem. after 15 min of cool down it fired right up without doing anything
 
I've never taken one apart but the silver button on the heat sink looks like a clixon ( thermal bimetal switch) which a lot of electronics have as well. Sometimes those get weak and a bump can cause them to open....???? But if it's in its regular position I wouldn't think it would get hot enough to trip on heat...
I would throw a meter in the glove box and the next time it happens start checking where the circuit loses power...
Hope you find it!
 
Have you checked your timing?

I agree with Mike just sounds like an electrical problem..My first guess was the ignition switch but you apparently ruled that out....
 
If you have a spare voltmeter (dash mounted) laying around I'd run a couple wires from the coil into the car where you can watch it, that would tell you for sure if your loosing voltage. If you have voltage I'd pull the filter and watch the squirters while working the throttle to ensure you have fuel as well.
 
Magvan- feel ur pain! My 80's BEI(Accel) took a crap in the garage. One day ran fine, the next it didn't want to start. Changed coil, didn't help;then decided it's 30+ yrs old and went with Summit stock Chrysler, fired right up with a little timing fiddling. Always remember that age gets to all of us.Electrical connections are no different, keep on hunting.
 
Off the wall, but almost sounds like a bad coil. Wire inside breaks, but still makes contact, until the coil heats up from running, and the heat separates that busted wire.
Can't say for sure that's it...just naming one possible, from how it's acting.
 
Why not just switch to a full electronic system bypassing the ballast? Is the orange box properly mounted with a good ground? doesn't the instructions say to run a ground wire with a star washer to cut any painted surface its mounted to?
 
box is mounted to the firewall behind the engine. yes it is grounded.

i want the car to look pretty stock. i figured the mopar stuff still looks pretty stock compared to a msd box or whatever
 
Ok so last night I changed out the box for a vintage 5 pin box and matching dual ballast. Let it sit running for 30 min and have put about 25 miles on it.
So far so good

The factory mopar box must be heating up and timing out.
 
New one will eventually do the same if there is a gounding problem. Light weight sheet metal and self tapping screws = a good one time connection.
 
I hope you found it. Intermittent problems are the worst. It's impossible to do in depth trouble shooting in the middle of an intersection. Every electrical component has a specific potential when the ignition is on, starting or running. Duplicating the problem in your garage with a wiring diagram, the right test equipment and reading each point of connection is the only true way to know for sure. If you have a wiring issue or a grounding problem, all the new components in the world are not going to fix it.
 
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