New distributor long cranking to start up

[73DreamRunner]

Hi all, just finished up replacing my oe distributor with a ready to run distributor. Before I did the swap my stock 400 would fire up within 2 seconds of cranking. Now it takes 5+ seconds and coughs and then more cranking. Finally when it starts it runs great. Is it because of different springs or different modules or different???? Just very disappointed in the new distributor. I had read that the hei ready to run distributors were an upgrade for starting and running. Do I need to adjust something other than base timing which is set at 10deg. According to Underhood label.

 

[493 Mike]

Are you sure you have a good 12 volts, while cranking, at the power connection? I have a relay suppling power direct from the battery on my system.
Mike

 

[Gold Rush]

Hi all, just finished up replacing my oe distributor with a ready to run distributor. Before I did the swap my stock 400 would fire up within 2 seconds of cranking. Now it takes 5+ seconds and coughs and then more cranking. Finally when it starts it runs great. Is it because of different springs or different modules or different???? Just very disappointed in the new distributor. I had read that the hei ready to run distributors were an upgrade for starting and running. Do I need to adjust something other than base timing which is set at 10deg. According to Underhood label.

Is the new distributor true HEI? If so Did you bypass the ballast resistor and increase the sparkplug gaps? I believe HEI likes the full starting voltage and because of the hotter spark more like .050 to .060 plug gap is used.

Also, an E-Core coil is used with that setup.

Hope that helps

 

[Don Frelier]

Do you know where the timing was before you changed the distributor?
It may have been closer to 20?

 

[4mulas]

What brand ready to run distributor?

If you had stock Chrysler electronic ignition the system uses a ballast resistor. Most aftermarket ignitions like MSD require you to bypass the ballast resistor. There are quite a few threads on this subject on this forum. Do a search something like ‘bypass ballast’ maybe

And as an obvious one, check your initial timing. If it’s way off it could affect the starting for sure

 

[73DreamRunner]

It's a CRT performance ready to run hei. The timing is set at 10 deg. Same as before. I bypassed the ballast by digging out the resistors on the back and put in 16 guage wire to keep the stock look. It runs fine once its started. It just takes alot longer to get started. The medium springs are what it comes with so I'm wondering would stiffer springs make it harder to start.

 

[73DreamRunner]

Oh and I increased the spark plug gap from .35 to .47.

 

[71Beeper]

Do yourself a favour and remove the chrome cover that covers the resistor.
It's doing nothing but keeping the heat in - that the resistor needs to get rid of.

My buddy has the same unit on a 440 in a 1958 Christine car - it stranded us one day when the resistor over heated and stopped working.
Pulled the chrome cover off with a rag as it was too hot to handle with bare fingers and Viola! back in business.

 

[4mulas]

I had never heard of CRT until this and decided to look them up. I can say I wouldn’t place much faith in a funky looking ready to run distributor that costs 80 bucks…..

Sounds like you covered all bases with timing and ballast bypass so it leads me to believe it’s the unit itself?

The curve of the distributor shouldn’t really affect starting….

I’ve used MSD R2R, Pertronix R2R, Pertronix retrofit, Chrysler OEM, and all worked great.

Curious, why did you change from the stock Chrysler electronic ignition which is super awesome?

 

[73DreamRunner]

My original stock distributor had a broken collar and I just thought I'd upgrade whilst changing it out. I had read that ready to run distributors were better and helped with starting and overall performance. Oh well live and learn. I'm gonna check out a few other things that might be causing the hard starts. For instance I replaced my ignition switch as well as turn signal switch. Also when I was double checking my new connections with the bypass and all, I noticed I was getting 12 volts in the run position and when cranking the volts tapered off to around 10 at the coil and distributor. Dont know if that's normal or not. Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe my ground to the distributor is weak. I'll be checking all these possibilities. If all else fails I'm looking at a stock style performance distributor from this guy named Rick. He calls them hi rev or something like that. I just didn't want to have to go through putting everything back after dumping $250 into this ready to run kit.

 

[73DreamRunner]

 

[73DreamRunner]

Are you sure you have a good 12 volts, while cranking, at the power connection? I have a relay suppling power direct from the battery on my system.
Mike

That might be the problem. I checked and had 12volts in the run position. But it drops to around 10 when cranking. How did you wire up the relay from the battery?

 

[Don Frelier]

The voltage will drop when cranking, 10 Volts sounds about right.
You're sending 100+ amps to the starter and any battery does not have infinite power.

 

[493 Mike]

That might be the problem. I checked and had 12volts in the run position. But it drops to around 10 when cranking. How did you wire up the relay from the battery?

Tap the starter relay stud for power. Are you OK with wiring? It scares some people. I can send a schematic if you need one.
Mike

 

[oldkimmer]

That 16 gauge wire is way too small. Kim

 

[Geoff 2]

That looks like a copy of the POS MSD Ready to Run....& Ready to Stop.

The pick up air gap is probably too large. When the air gap is too large, not enough voltage is generated by the p/up to trigger the module.
A sluggish starter, old battery will also reduce the voltage generated because voltage is dependant on the speed at which the reluctor passes the pole piece. There is a threshold voltage that is reqd to trigger the module.
Check air gap & adjust to 0.010".

 

[73DreamRunner]

Well I went back thru rechecking everything and found that my ground to the distributor was weak. I made a better ground and now everything seems to be ok. I'll see how it goes from here.

 

[73DreamRunner]

Thanks for all the replies. I went through all ideas and finally found it. Thanks again.