1969 Chrysler 300 no start

[C Body Bob]

Move the dizzy each direction while someone is starting the car. You should get something. If you don’t its 180 out.
Another thing. Double check the orientation of the plug wires. I bought a 383 Fury from a guy who gave up on it after he did a tune up on it. Couldn’t get it to hit either. I got it home & checked the wires. He had two in the wrong place. Corrected it & she fired right up.

 

[Wollfen]

Move the dizzy each direction while someone is starting the car. You should get something. If you don’t its 180 out.
Another thing. Double check the orientation of the plug wires. I bought a 383 Fury from a guy who gave up on it after he did a tune up on it. Couldn’t get it to hit either. I got it home & checked the wires. He had two in the wrong place. Corrected it & she fired right up.

Yup I double checked the wires too, 18436572. But Daves idea has got me thinking, I have to go check, I cant wait lol. I will be right back!

 

[commando1]

Of course!! Four stroke motor! I thought of this the other day and meant to check, then totally forgot!

I was presuming you checked for TDC on the compression stroke.

 

[C Body Bob]

Yup I double checked the wires too, 18436572. But Daves idea has got me thinking, I have to go check, I cant wait lol. I will be right back!

You told me yesterday you had it on the compression stroke

 

[Wollfen]

I was presuming you checked for TDC on the compression stroke.

Exactly what I thought I did, turned it over using a screwdriver on the solenoid, felt for air blowing out the spark plug hole etc.

 

[Wollfen]

You told me yesterday you had it on the compression stroke

Yup, im over thinking this, when you get desperate you make up silly thoughts.

 

[Wollfen]

Yup I double checked the wires too, 18436572. But Daves idea has got me thinking, I have to go check, I cant wait lol. I will be right back!

Ok that didn't work, but in hindsight I shouldn't have expected it. I do however have more to the story.
When I pulled out the MSD ignition it was a godawful mess of wiring that a lot of went nowhere after tracing it.
Now I'm thinking i have missed something basic, and I just thought of something it could be, while I have spark when I hit the key, I am wondering if in this botched harness there is a "Start" bypass wire that draws direct power for the coil on starting. I know that idea is what happens on dual ballast resistor systems and I had this problem happen to me almost 30 years ago in one of my 70 challengers, it had a dual ballast ECU but only a single ballast resistor in the harness. It had spark but wouldn't fire, fixing that wiring fixed the problem. So I will check my wiring diagrams in my manual and see, or someone can tell me if that bypass wire exists and what color I should be looking for.

 

[commando1]

Remember the old trick of preventing someone from stealing your car by hiding a toggle switch that grounds the distributer side of the coil.
It would turn and turn and turn and turn but never start.
Just saying....

 

[Wollfen]

Remember the old trick of preventing someone from stealing your car by hiding a toggle switch that grounds the distributer side of the coil.
It would turn and turn and turn and turn but never start.
Just saying....

That wouldn't surprise me, this car has been kicking my electrical *** for almost a year. I'm looking at my 69 service manual as we speak.

 

[Davea Lux]

If you suspect a wiring problem to the unit, check the wiring diagram for the unit. One wire, if it has a high voltage start circuit will probably be a 12v input. Disconnect that wire from what ever it is hooked to and run a jumper lead to the positive terminal on the battery and attempt to start. What year TNT engine is this?

Dave

 

[commando1]

I'm going to bed now.
I expect it running by morning.

 

[Wollfen]

If you suspect a wiring problem to the unit, check the wiring diagram for the unit. One wire, if it has a high voltage start circuit will probably be a 12v input. Disconnect that wire from what ever it is hooked to and run a jumper lead to the positive terminal on the battery and attempt to start. What year TNT engine is this?

Dave

It's a 1969 car and the wiring diagram shows two wires to the positive side of the coil from what I can see, one from the ballast resistor and one directly from the ignition switch, a brown wire, I am thinking this is the "start only" wire and is only hot on start, thus having a direct bypass of the ballast resistor. Since I had to cut out the MSD wiring and unsheath almost the entire engine bay wiring harnesses I'm thinking I missed it. I will check tomorrow to see if I can find it.
And to think, I thought to myself when i first looked at replacing all the harnesses, 'nah, I will make it work" Blah.

 

[Davea Lux]

If is of any help, on the '70 cars, the single pass resistor had a black wire hooked to one end. This supplies 12v power to the resistor. The out going terminal on the resistor has two wires hooked to one terminal thru a common spade connector. One wire is blue and the other is purple. One is the 12v lead from the key in the start position, the other supplies (blue) supplies the coil with power. Not all of the aftermarket ignition setups use a two step start/run wiring system, so you need to look at the wiring diagram for your unit to see if it used both resistance and full voltage.

Dave

 

[Wollfen]

If is of any help, on the '70 cars, the single pass resistor had a black wire hooked to one end. This supplies 12v power to the resistor. The out going terminal on the resistor has two wires hooked to one terminal thru a common spade connector. One wire is blue and the other is purple. One is the 12v lead from the key in the start position, the other supplies (blue) supplies the coil with power.

Dave

Thanks for that, yes that is helpful, I will check for that also as this car is not original and who knows how it may have been changed over the years.

 

[CBODY67]

Did the car "start and run" with the prior MSD unit installed? What was the reason the owner wanted it removed?

Just curious . . .
CBODY67

 

[Wollfen]

Did the car "start and run" with the prior MSD unit installed? What was the reason the owner wanted it removed?

Just curious . . .
CBODY67

The car was bought without seeing it run, when it came to me, it wouldn't start on the trailer, hasn't run since purchased. We are retrofitting original OEM parts to the car as we go, the Tuff wheel is eventually coming off and the aluminum rocker covers too etc. But right now, I'm more concerned with fixing the mechanical/electrical issues. Once they are sorted, then I will do the cosmetics.

 

[Chrome58]

I'm hanging on the edge of my seat ...

 

[FinFury]

One more thought. My Ram van died years ago on a grocery parking lot and I verified on site that I was getting spark and fuel (it had tbi) but it was still dead. Towed it home and I managed to get it barely running by retarding the timing a lot but it felt like running super lean popping and so on. Changed a lot of sensors and checked fuel pressure etc but still the same problems.

Finally when I ran out of ideas I changed the ignition coil. Bam! And it ran flawlesly when I resetted the timing. I still have no idea what happened to the old coil. It might have been arcing inside the coil during dwell time and produced erratic spark too early which would explain why it somewhat ran with timing significantly retarded. The spark observed from the broken coil was maybe bit weakish but I had seen worse on running engines so therefore I didn't suspect it

 

[MarPar]

 

[Ripinator]

Thanks for that, yes that is helpful, I will check for that also as this car is not original and who knows how it may have been changed over the years.