440 transplant would not run without holding key to the right.....

[318to440charger]

I am new to this and learning as I go, and boy, it's brutal. I basically look into the engine bay for 5 minutes and then go to the internet for 4 hours, and then back to the car...
I got this 1969 Dodge Charger that originally had a 318 and over the years, and somebody jammed a 440 into it. Fine. I don't know what it's suppposed to look like and when I find stuff online,
nothing is the same as what I have... Fine. The guy who sold it to me says "Just rebuild the carb and she'll run fine." (When he was selling it to me, he could only have it to run for like 2 seconds...) I rebuilt the carb, it took a month. I put the carb on, same problem. Boo. (I'm trying to be brief...) I find that if I hold the key to the right, it stays running... (Bad for coil; I know now...) So, back to the internet.
Dual Ballast Resistor. No videos, not much information except you only need one if 5 pin ECU.... Still learning. I measure this thing and it's one ohm across the top and 5 ohm across the bottom. It APPEARS that the 5 ohm load was wired to the COIL Side and the 1 ohm load was wired to the ECU part... So.... In a caution to the wind moment, I spun the resistor pack upside down and cut of the alignment pins for the connectors
and plugged them back on. Which put the 1 ohm load to the Coil... Car fired right up and ran nicely except that we fiddled around with the timing PRIOR to the resistor issue... (I think the timing is messed up from that.) Anyway, the car sarts and idles now and I am wondering HOW it EVER ran before, with the swapped wiring. you can see in the pic that the wires were just hacked off and added; I believe whoever did that put them to the wrong places. I'm going to continue research and wire tracing but I feel slighted by previous owners if I am correct. Of course, I could be wrong. Here's a pic.

 

[davek]

I feel your pain. I would get a new harness and get rid of the hacked ones. Go here for the wiring diagram. Wiring – MyMopar

 

[davek]

I have bought these they help alot. 1969 Dodge Charger Color Wiring Diagram (Includes R/T SE 500 & Daytona

 

[Jeff K]

That engine looks like it needs a few things. You've got mismatched spark plug wires, your PCV valve is not connected, etc.. The previous maintenance on that engine is rather suspect. At some point (soon) I would replace the cap, rotor, plugs, and plug wires. Also buy a new PCV valve and hook it back up.

 

[318to440charger]

That engine looks like it needs a few things. You've got mismatched spark plug wires, your PCV valve is not connected, etc.. The previous maintenance on that engine is rather suspect. At some point (soon) I would replace the cap, rotor, plugs, and plug wires. Also buy a new PCV valve and hook it back up.

Yes, it is in a very sorry state. I intend to do all those things but I just wanted ONE smokey burnout before I began in earnest. I only have a few hours a day to work on it and I was put under the impression that it "should" run "as is..." Will keep the group up to date. Thanks everybody.

 

[GTXDAN]

Here's a quick wiring diagram for how the ignition should be wired with a dual ballast resistor.

 

[318to440charger]

That's awesome. Thanks. One issue I am finding though is that there is no mention of the different values and which one goes where; i.e, 1 ohm and 5 ohms.

 

[Sinitro]

The dual ballast resistor was only used in the early years of the Mopar electronic ignition.
Basically the 2nd part of the ballast resistor was to current protect the ignition module from high current
similar to the coil current protection of the 1st part of the ballast resistor. Back in the early days of electronic
ignition there was concern about the power transistor reliability in the ignition module. This later proved to be
not required and later systems went with just a single element ballast resistor for coil current protection.

Just my $0.02...

 

[440beep]

Looks like the rear negative/grounding wire is missing from the engine block to firewall, which can create all sorts of reliability issues. See yellow circled area. Unless there’s a lead somewhere else. Should be two, negative battery to front right of engine block, and back left to firewall.