Whats in the orange box ?

Orange box ? Oh, I thought you were referring to Wheaties.

oldbee said:

Here we go again- always check your grounds. Can’t be said often enuf!

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Actually the ground failure it comes from the ECU itself internally. For some reason the ground between PCB and ECU box is not good from factory.

So what he is allways maiking is as mentioned, cutting to rear epoxy where the PCB ground is to the ECU box, and solds a wire straight to the PCB and attachs to the mointing screw or wherever he chooses.

In my experience the case grounding is the key. None of the Chrysler electronic ignitions work without a good ground. Orange boxes are still for the fairly low RPM (5500 or so), blue, chrome, gold, higher RPM. My 70's blue box worked past 7000 RPM & I had a real solid ground. All the modern control boxes MSD, Crane, etc need the real good ground also.

Great thread, I have learned something else today. My Orange box was installed in 2002, ran for over 16000 miles in 16 years, seasonal driving with the Charger, anyway, I tried the Revenator, smooth better mileage, but I sent it back because it lacks the quick snappy feel off the line and it does have less power in the low to mid range of driving. what I am comparing to is a Jegs. blue high rev 7500, which is advertised to compare to the Mopar Chrome box. What a difference, and I can actually see as I rev to only 2800 rpms compared to the Revenator it reaches 36deg advance so much faster, I think the Mopar Chrome box is engineered very well and this blue box is also, and it is made here in the US. for only 35.00 it can be as reliable as anything really, I do carry a new factory NOS spare, which is so low powered compared to this box, but it is there in an emergency. Also I don't need my vacuum advance, the blue box goes right up so quickly with out it, the car runs awesome. With the VA connected it flutters off the line you can here it. with the VA connected during my adjusting in the garage it goes right up to 40deg advance, it seems to have built in fly wheel significantly affecting the timing. The 318 is set about 19 idle 35,36 at 2800 rpms with a digital timing light.
I wont use the orange box anymore also.

Never could justify the price for that "Revenator" thingy, least on something as close to stock as mine....just saying.

Tweecom,
Excellent write up....
The Q3 transistor actually is "on" to charge the coil primary and turns "off" to cause the spark. The UJT is actually an SCR (Silicon Controlled Rectifier) that provides the signal to Q3 to turn it off. The diodes around Q3 provide voltage spike control (similar to the condenser in a points system) when the transistor rurns off to create the spark.
Just my opinion of course.
Bob Renton

Your option is correct Bob. One side of the coil is battery + volts. The ECU completes
(switches) the electrical path to ground to the coil, energizing the primary winding to create the magnetic field in the iron core material of the coil (transformer). It's when the voltage is removed, or the ECU opens that path to ground, the collapse of the magnetic field occurs ( aka. back EMF). That is when the high voltage spike ( the spark) is created in the secondary winding. The ECU acts similar to what the points would have accomplished, but better, and far more consistently.

It still boggles my mind how it does all that, considering the RPM it is turning at. PFM!

I noticed an immediate performance improvement converting to electronic ignition.

moparedtn said:

I should have prefaced my statement by saying that I currently own nothing but older orange boxes.
Yes, I've read also about the issues with the ones made in recent years.
Fortunately, I always had a stash of ones made in the 80's or even older - a couple of which are brand new
never used (because I bought them for backup and then never needed them).
I have some generic NAPA one lying around somewhere too, no idea why. Must have "inherited" it in some
parts stash somewhere. For grins, I hooked it up once and it worked fine as well, so I kept it.

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Did you ever keep a stash of the chrome boxes too ??

spchallenger340 said:

Did you ever keep a stash of the chrome boxes too ??

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I have had one here and there, but honestly never had need of one.

twecomm said:

I noticed an immediate performance improvement converting to electronic ignition.

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Me too back in 1988 it was the first thing I did on my charger.

In 2014 I put in an MSD street fire.
It started better idled better and I had to turn back the timing because it started pinging.

I've made more changes since then but the street fire was noticeable.