Uh-oh. New motor, electrical mysteries...

[barsteel]

Hello!

I finally got the new 440 into my '65 Fury III. It's up and running, and SCARY fast. Since I got the car running, I'd only take it on 10 minute blasts down local roads. Today I did my first mini "shakedown run" by taking it to the bank, and that's where the trouble started.

All was well until just before the bank, a 15 minute drive through light downtown traffic. I was at a light and the idle dropped until the car almost stalled. I goosed it and it idled back up again. I pulled into the bank and did my business. The car was then kind of hard to start. I drove maybe 500ft and it died (in an intersection, of course). I pushed it to the curb and checked the carb for gas...I got 2 strong shots out of the accelerator pump, so I had fuel. I waited about 5 minutes, and got it to start by pumping the gas and cranking the engine for about 10 seconds.

As I drove away, the engine started detonating heavily whereas it had not at all before. I babied it home where I shut off the engine and put a timing light on it. Tried to start it, battery would barely turn the motor over, where it had cranked over with no problem a few minutes ago. I used a jump pack and it started right up. Timing seemed ok at first, about 3 degrees advanced at idle, and it ran up to about 20 when I revved the engine. I'm running a factory Chrysler chrome box and straight mechanical advance on the distributor. The distributor and box came from the previous owner, and the engine ran flawlessly.

I turned the engine off, and tried to re-start it with the jump pack. NOTHING. I'd blown a 30amp in line fuse the previous owner put on the main power line at the bulkhead. New fuse, started right up again. This time, the timing light showed that the engine was running at about 20+ degrees advanced AT IDLE. I turned the engine off and blew another fuse.

At this point, I replaced the fuse, started the car, and pulled it into the garage.

Just before I turned off the engine, I realized that my brand new Pro Comp tach was no longer working.

This is my 2nd Mopar...my 1st was a '68 300C that put me through electrical purgatory because of a bad ammeter. The current from the alternator feeds the ignition and lights before it went through the ammeter to the voltage regulator. The ammeter was bad so I was feeding unregulated voltage to the ignition and the lights...and that's why I blew every light in the car.

I'm thinking that I may have the same problem here.

Thoughts as to if I'm right or wrong, and if I'm wrong, what else may be going on?

Thanks...

Chris

 

[traintech55]

Since you are blowing an inline fuse, I would look at ALL my under hood wiring first. You might have something pinched in the harness. If all is OK get back to us and we'll take it from there.

 

[barsteel]

Train - I've already spent a lot of time with my head under the hood, including time cleaning and inspecting the bulkhead connectors, and everything seems to be in order, but I will re-check.

The ammeter is mounted in a pod to the left of the speedo cluster, and I can remove the entire pod in 2 minutes by removing 4 screws. Will I damage anything if I temporarily bypass the ammeter by connecting the 2 leads that connect to the back?

Thanks...

Chris

 

[300rag]

The ammeter provides no protection to the system. Removing it from the circuit will cause no harm.

 

[commando1]

As I drove away, the engine started detonating heavily whereas it had not at all before.

Check for overheating.

 

[traintech55]

Ok, all your wiring is good, so lets look at this logically, 1. Your car has an inline fuse from the battery to the bulkhead connector that is blowing, this should be a fusible link and not a regular fuse. 2. Your timing was good, and then the next time you checked it was way off and now your tach is not working. Lets do some basics to isolate the problem
Take off the dist cap and rotor, spay some lube down on the advance pivot under the rotor and make sure your dist is not stuck in full mechanical advance. You should be able to move the mechanism by hand. I would disconnect the tach for now just to get it out of the circuit. If your timing was way off you could be pulling more amps than the fuse can handle and blowing. This of course would keep your charging system from working. Try all this first and lets see wear we are.

 

[saylor]

i was kinda wondering the same thing - is the distributor hold down tight so it cant move around ?

try not to die. or blow up your car.

- saylor

 

[Big_John]

I'm thinking the same thing with a problem in the distributor. As was said, check the advance etc. Is the distributor cap seated down all the way?

BTW, your ammeter on your old car does nothing to regulate voltage. Simple gauge, that's all. It also has no bearing on any of the problems you are having now. Leave it alone.

 

[mr. fix it]

does it clear up when cold? if yes it could be the ignition timing...

 

[GJS]

I was thinking 8 degrees at idle would be a little on the slim side for a 440... but due to the varying timing results I'd agree, look hard at that dist.

 

[barsteel]

Commando - The car has a mechanical temp gauge that read 170, so I'm pretty sure that temp isn't a problem.

Train/Saylor/Big_John - I checked the distributor hold down and it was tight. I tried to turn the distributor by hand but could not, so I don't think that the distributor moved.

One thing to note - when the engine was running at 20+ degrees at idle, it would still advance if I revved the engine, so it appears as if the mechanical advance is not stuck.

I did pull the cap and could rotate the rotor by hand about 5 degrees. I'll spray some penetrating oil in there and jiggle it some more.

The tach is protected by a fuse that I'm sure is blown, so I'm not worried about that at the moment.

I ran out of time after I parked it, so I didn't have a chance to try starting when it was cold.

I have to be in Baltimore for 2 days starting tomorrow, then we're off to NH for the weekend, so I won't have time to mess with it until next week...which means I'll find myself staring at the ceiling at 3am wondering just what the hell is going on.

Chris

 

[65sporty]

This is my 2nd Mopar...my 1st was a '68 300C that put me through electrical purgatory because of a bad ammeter. The current from the alternator feeds the ignition and lights before it went through the ammeter to the voltage regulator. The ammeter was bad so I was feeding unregulated voltage to the ignition and the lights...and that's why I blew every light in the car.

Chris

Your alternator should be connected to the battery. Everything else should come off the battery

 

[traintech55]

Commando - The car has a mechanical temp gauge that read 170, so I'm pretty sure that temp isn't a problem.

Train/Saylor/Big_John - I checked the distributor hold down and it was tight. I tried to turn the distributor by hand but could not, so I don't think that the distributor moved.

One thing to note - when the engine was running at 20+ degrees at idle, it would still advance if I revved the engine, so it appears as if the mechanical advance is not stuck.

I did pull the cap and could rotate the rotor by hand about 5 degrees. I'll spray some penetrating oil in there and jiggle it some more.

The tach is protected by a fuse that I'm sure is blown, so I'm not worried about that at the moment.

I ran out of time after I parked it, so I didn't have a chance to try starting when it was cold.

I have to be in Baltimore for 2 days starting tomorrow, then we're off to NH for the weekend, so I won't have time to mess with it until next week...which means I'll find myself staring at the ceiling at 3am wondering just what the hell is going on.

Chris

Don't worry about it Chris. Let us know when you are back. We'll be here.

 

[Big_John]

If you are just running mechanical advance on the distributor, is the vacuum can still on the distributor? The plate that the pickup screws to is free to "float" and retained by the vacuum can.

Is this a Mopar distributor? Or aftermarket?