Will leaving Ignition key on kill ECU box?

[Ron H]

You are correct, you didn't say you left the door open, BUT you also did NOT say that you didn't either. We are all just spitballing here, so I'm sorry for my assistance.

Yeah - ya know...it's super nice for members to take the time out of their day to toss in their ideas being kind enough to offer them and their guesses sometimes in this effort having little info about what's been done or the extent of knowledge a guy with a problem has...

 

[MoparGuy68]

You are correct, you didn't say you left the door open, BUT you also did NOT say that you didn't either. We are all just spitballing here, so I'm sorry for my assistance.

Thanks for making a suggestion. I’m just frustrated with this car. In this case the battery and starter motor are working as they should and are not the problem. True that I knew that, but you didn’t.

 

[MoparGuy68]

It's to make sure the car doesn't think its in the wrong gear while starting.
I've had a similar problem before on my car. I rolled the car out of the garage to work on it, tried to start it in park, wouldn't start. Put the car back in neutral and it started right up.

I did not attempt to start the car in neutral, only in Park. I’m curious now if that would’ve made any difference. I could try starting it in neutral this weekend and see what happens.

I do know the the locking rod in the transmission sometimes doesn’t engage after putting the transmission in Park until the car has rolled backwards an inch or two. The column shift linkage attachment at the steering column is not solid.

Where the rod sits in the hole on the steering column arm is not factory correct. There is a cut cross section of a rubber hose in there acting as a washer because the hole in the column arm is larger in diameter than the shifter rod that goes into it. I’ll have to take pictures of it so people can see how not to connect a column shift linkage rod to a steering column.

Just another one of an endless list of things that are wrong with this car that I haven’t yet gotten around to fixing. And I have fixed a lot of stuff on this car in the past year+ that I’ve had it.

 

[MoparGuy68]

After attempting to start the car again today, the engine still won't run. It only cranks like it did last weekend..
This is what I've found so far during my troubleshooting:

Test Ignition coil resistance:
Primary resistance = 1.4 to 1.5 Ohms ( I have an analog multimeter, so it is a bit hard to tell, but when calibrating for resistance with the Ohm meter on zero, it looks to be in that range)
Secondary resistance 10 Kilo ohms (10,000 ohms)

Test ballast resistor: .5 Ohms (this was the resistor supplied by Ehrenberg, which is rated for .5 Ohms)

Test voltage with key in ON position at positive terminal of coil = 7.5 to 8 volts (Ehrenberg says this should be between 7 to 9 volts, but NO HIGHER than 9 volts)

Test for spark coming out of coil wire = spark is present when cranking
Test for spark coming out of cylinder #1 plug wire = NO SPARK

Next I am going to try removing the Ehrenberg ECU and installing the Made in China ECU that was previously on the car along with its ballast resistor. But first, I have to get that screw off the Ehrenberg ECU so I can unplug it from the harness.. That is going to be a bitch!!

 

[MoparGuy68]

The metal piece that is attached to the ECU box that the screw goes into separated from the ECU box and was just rotating around with the screw. The metal piece is STUCK inside my Evans wiring harness ECU connector! The connector on a $200+ wiring harness! So far I have not been able to get the screw out of it. Unbelievable.. He is definitely going to hear from me about this. I DID NOT over tighten that damn screw when I put it in there. I was never able to tighten the screw at all in his box.. I had ZERO problems with that screw in two other ECU boxes, before I screwed into his box..

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

If you have spark out of the coil most parts are working right. Look for a burnt through rotor or a cracked cap. The spark is not getting distributed it sounds like.

 

[Bee1971]

It’s not the ECU/Ignition Module



If you have spark coming out of your coil wire while cranking

And no spark coming out of your spark plug wires while cranking

Did you pull your distributor cap off and check your rotor/cap first ?

Then on to plug wires and spark plugs

 

[Bee1971]

Damn I type slow

Like three minutes slow

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

LOL Thats funny. Also make sure the coil wire for some reason is arcing to ground. Or a bad coil going from the towere to say the neg side. Dark is good for that.

 

[Bee1971]

That cheap acorn nut attached to the ECU is just that

A lot of Chinese ECUs have that same problem - Just snap it back in place

So you have the wiring harness removed from the ECU and you can’t get a vice grips or needle nose on the cheap acorn nut and remove the screw ?

What am I missing here

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

I am reading the screw that coes through the five pin ecu connector is just spinning. I would try to gently pry the connector off slowly when spinning the screw.

 

[MoparGuy68]

That cheap acorn nut attached to the ECU is just that

A lot of Chinese ECUs have that same problem - Just snap it back in place

So you have the wiring harness removed from the ECU and you can’t get a vice grips or needle nose on the cheap acorn nut and remove the screw ?

What am I missing here

Bingo, I have not been able to get anything down inside the connector to get a solid grip on the acorn thing. I don't have vice grips, and they would need to be super small. I just have needle nose. No room between the rubber and the acorn to get a grip on it with my needle nose.

I have not checked the cap and rotor yet. I'll check those, but unfortunately will have to remove most of the plug wires from the cap. With the wires connected I cannot lift the cap high enough off the distributor to either look inside it or even see the rotor. Didn't have this problem with my 318 in the Challenger. Could raise it off and see everything with all wires in place.

Plugs wires are all NEW OEM repro from Lectric Limited. Spark plugs are all NEW. Put them in this past summer. Have driven less than 50 miles since..

Cap and rotor I did not replace.. Don't know how old they are.

 

[MoparGuy68]

I finally managed to get needle nose on the acorn but as you can see turning the screw just bent up the acorn. The screw is locked onto the acorn. I’ll never put one of these screws into an ECU again after this nightmare.

I could cut the rubber off beneath the head of the screw to give enough room to get a hacksaw in there and cut the head off the screw with a hacksaw. So I can then drive the thing out with a punch. Unbeelievable!!

Trying to grab with the needle nose and rotate screw with a wrench. That just mangled the acorn even worse.. I have no other idea to get this piece of **** off other than to hacksaw it off and **** up my wiring harness in the process. I'm really pissed off with this Ehrenberg box!

Again I repeat this exact same screw had no problem screwing in and out of two other ECU boxes, neither one of which were from Ehrenberg.

 

[MoparGuy68]

Cap and rotor look normal to me.. I was shocked to see that the cap was made in Canada, and not China.

I don’t see any cracks anywhere.

Does this cap and rotor not look normal to you guys?

 

[MoparGuy68]

More photos of my rotor. I cleaned the center contact and the rotating tip with a cloth. They looked just slightly dirty. The photos are after the minor cleaning.

 

[Bee1971]

I don’t see anything abnormal with your cap and rotor

Your getting spark at your coil high tension wire correct

But nothing off your spark plug wire ? You sure it was grounded properly to provide a path

 

[MoparGuy68]

Photos of the distributor and coil. The two wire connector the goes from the engine harness to the distributor was laying on the intake manifold and orange plate beneath it when I got the car (I included a photo of where it used to be). I moved it so it is resting on the coil mount bracket. I thought this would be a better place to put it hoping it would be exposed to less heat while resting on the coil bracket. Where is this connector normally supposed to be placed?

 

[Bee1971]

I finally managed to get needle nose on the acorn but as you can see turning the screw just bent up the acorn. The screw is locked onto the acorn. I’ll never put one of these screws into an ECU again after this nightmare.

I could cut the rubber off beneath the head of the screw to give enough room to get a hacksaw in there and cut the head off the screw with a hacksaw. So I can then drive the thing out with a punch. Unbeelievable!!

Trying to grab with the needle nose and rotate screw with a wrench. That just mangled the acorn even worse.. I have no other idea to get this piece of **** off other than to hacksaw it off and **** up my wiring harness in the process. I'm really pissed off with this Ehrenberg box!

Again I repeat this exact same screw had no problem screwing in and out of two other ECU boxes, neither one of which were from Ehrenberg.

View attachment 1073036 View attachment 1073037 View attachment 1073038

I don’t know to laugh or cry

Don’t cut anything , I don’t want you ruining your harness

A needle nose vice grips will now solve your issue , hopefully breaking the nut/splitting up to the screw as your turning it out

 

[MoparGuy68]

I don’t see anything abnormal with your cap and rotor

Your getting spark at your coil high tension wire correct

But nothing off your spark plug wire ? You sure it was grounded properly to provide a path

I followed Uncle Tony’s “No Start” video troubleshooting.. I should post a link for that video in this thread. He got a car started that the owner was unable to start. Aftet watching the video I really can’t tell what he did that made a difference to get it started. It’s almost as if he just got lucky and it decided to cooperate and start. It’s like he fiddled with the timing a little bit while continuing to crank the engine and squirt gas in the carburetor. Then it decided to cooperate and fire up.

I checked for spark at the number one plug wire by sticking a screwdriver into the end of it, a screwdriver that is known to conduct electricity. But now I see from watching the video again, that I did NOT ground the screwdriver to something on the engine lol. Yes, I’m an idiot... He was grounding the screwdriver up against the side of the carburetor, at least it looks like to me.

I did hold the metal end of the coil wire to a bolt on the engine that is securing the battery ground wire to the engine. When I cranked while doing that I did see a spark jump from the end of the coil wire to the bolt head. At least I did the coil wire check correctly.

Next weekend I’ll have to do the check correctly and see if I’m getting spark out of the plug wire. If I am getting spark from the wire, guess the next step is to pull the spark plug and examine the spark plug.

Before I can do any of that stuff I need to figure out a way to get that damn acorn and screw out of the ECU connector. The way it is now it’s impossible for me to plug the connector into the ECU.

 

[Bee1971]

I checked for spark at the number one plug wire by sticking a screwdriver into the end of it, a screwdriver that is known to conduct electricity. But now I see from watching the video again, that I did NOT ground the screwdriver to something on the engine lol. Yes, I’m an idiot... He was grounding the screwdriver up against the side of the carburetor, at least it looks like to me.


Well that explains that , glad I mentioned that earlier after looking at your cap and rotor

Chances are you will now have spark at your plugs

Then we move until fuel