Got my *** kicked

khryslerkid said:

I was thinking you got your *** kicked by the coil voltage. That can be a wake up sometimes!

I've always said, think simple first. Most of the time it's the smallest thing that causes the problem. Now the new cars of today are loaded with little things that lead you all over the place. Glad I'm not working on them for a living.

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Cojohnso1 said:

I was at the track in 1987 with my '69 GTX for a little fun in the sun. I drove the car to that track about 120 miles away. While in the staging lanes it shut down. Lost all electric power to all components. Battery tested fine. Even replaced to test. Nothing. All wires testing ok. But would not crank. No lights. Nothing. A '69 GTX only has 3 electrical circuits. So what could possibly causing this? Re-body ground engine and batt. Nothing. Other folks some full mechanics with their own volt meters couldn't figure it out. The weekend lost. On Sunday when it was time to go? I gave a last attempt before figuring out a tow. I was under the dash. Checking wires with the ignition on. When I saw the smallest wisp of smoke from the back of the aftermarket Sun tach. I closed my eyes and thought. "That is very likely the only component wired to Batt, ignition and axillary circuits. I reached up and the back of the metal case was certainly hot enough to be more than a suspect. I disconnected and the car ran great all the way home. It still doesn't make sense why the starter circuit just wouldn't out ground the tach even if shorting inside its housing? I'm afraid that GTX is gone and I'm on GTX #2. But it is mystery that I think about time from time?

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Cojohnso1 said:

I was at the track in 1987 with my '69 GTX for a little fun in the sun. I drove the car to that track about 120 miles away. While in the staging lanes it shut down. Lost all electric power to all components. Battery tested fine. Even replaced to test. Nothing. All wires testing ok. But would not crank. No lights. Nothing. A '69 GTX only has 3 electrical circuits. So what could possibly causing this? Re-body ground engine and batt. Nothing. Other folks some full mechanics with their own volt meters couldn't figure it out. The weekend lost. On Sunday when it was time to go? I gave a last attempt before figuring out a tow. I was under the dash. Checking wires with the ignition on. When I saw the smallest wisp of smoke from the back of the aftermarket Sun tach. I closed my eyes and thought. "That is very likely the only component wired to Batt, ignition and axillary circuits. I reached up and the back of the metal case was certainly hot enough to be more than a suspect. I disconnected and the car ran great all the way home. It still doesn't make sense why the starter circuit just wouldn't out ground the tach even if shorting inside its housing? I'm afraid that GTX is gone and I'm on GTX #2. But it is mystery that I think about time from time?

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Bee1971 said:

This was the positive side of the coil on a ten year old reproduction wiring harness

View attachment 1061928

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moparjohnny said:

it happens to us all 65-440 you are not the lone stranger on that one, glad you figured it out.

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65-440 said:

Working on a customer's car, 67 charger 383 4spd..mopar electronic ignition conversion.. would not start, crank but no spark. Verified ignition voltage at the ballast and positive terminal on coil. Verified reluctor gap...verified resistance through the distributor pickup....verified cranking voltage at the coil..everything seemed like it should, swapped coil and ecu but still no spark. After several hours of poking around and parts swapping it briefly fired up then shut down....again no spark....at this point I'm absolutely stumped....had one buddy holding a test light on the negative terminal of the coil looking for ground pulse, another buddy wiggling the harness while I was cranking....all of a sudden tiny sparks camw from the crimped ring terminal on the negative post of the coil....wiggling that wire at the ring terminal would result in intermittent start and stalls....cut off the terminal and crimped my own ring terminal on and BAM it fires up every time now! A ******* 50+ yr old crimp wooped my butt!....had enough connection to give me a good voltage reading with key on but not enough to pulse ground from the ecu to allow coil discharge...that was tough one for sure!!

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hsorman said:

The real insult comes when the customer complains that all you did was change a ring terminal! How long can that take? And a 50 cent part! Why are you charging me ***?

Fixes can be easy. FINDING what to fix is sometimes very hard! But no one values that...

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65-440 said:

Bingo! I took that one on the chin, was a funky situation. I drove the car into the shop to do a steering column swap and fix the sloppy inland shifter. I went to back the car out and it wouldn't start, then then fun began!

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hsorman said:

So now, of course, it was YOUR fault!

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Should be playing golf said:

Now if you could only fix those gas gauge issues! You'd have your own private island in the Bahamas.

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