Hey all, My 74 with original 6 is giving me greif. She will fire but as soon as you let off the starter she dies. I think it is the power cable coming off the side of the distributer, my reasoning is that if I jiggle this wire she will run for a little while but I don't dare drive her anywhere. I was going to get the Petronix Flamethrower kit anyways and maybe this is all the more reason. I just figured that the points on that dis would eventually give me headachs. I found the kit at Downey for 139:eek: but if you buy the coil seperate from the igniter it is only 124:confused: go figure... I saw the same kit at JC Whitney for 107. Who else should I go check out? And Yes I did do a search on this and nothing so any personal accounts of this product or problem will be appreciated.
And Since I am a Newbie:flipoff2:
Jarett
The Crusher, 74, mostly stock with 33's

I would check a couple of things, and they may be related.

Do you have 12vdc at the + of the ignition coil when the key is in the run position?

Is the idle cut off solenoid connected and functioning. This is a round thingy on the carb that is connected to +12vdc, on some models right at the ignition coil (see connection above).

If either of these is not getting the +12vdc it will cause the symptoms you describe. If no voltage you can run a temporary jumper to this from the battery and see if it starts and runs as expected. You'll have to pull the jumper to kill the motor. Then I would check the engine fuse and the ignition switch.

Besides what Mike pointed out, it could be a couple more things. First make sure that your points are OK and gapped properly as the gap may be too narrow and not allowing enough dwell time for your coil to saturate when it is running off the ballast resistor.

If it has 12V at the + pole of the coil and your points are gapped properly and it still won't run, I would suspect a high-resistance (eg corroded) connection in the circuit. Although you would still have the proper voltage, the coil won't get enough current to fire. Power = amps times volts. You can check by disconnecting the distributor wire, turning the key on and grounding the distributor side of the coil through an ammeter. It should sink several amps.

jratt...

Did you ever figure out what was causing your problems?

Damn I hope so, that was about a year and change ago!

-Brett

Me too or else my cruiser is going to stay parked.

Any advice?

Burnt,
Yours doing the same thing? I would say bad ballast resistor. Should be mounted on the coil (or near it). Would have 2 wires connected at one end and 1 on the other.
The reason it starts while cranking is the resistor bypass wire (gives a hotter spark while starting). Soon as you relase the started the bypass wire looses power and vehicle dies.


Of course, your rig is worthless as it is.......I could come up to Canada and take it off your hands.....:D :D

Can't seem to find anything resembling this ballast resistor

I do however have a pink wire that is marked "ignition resistor wire" :)

If I bypassed this w/ a normal wire, the truck starts up fine. So if I were to use regular wire, an inline ballast resistor to the coil it should be fine eh?

But what is the resistance for the system? Will any generic one work fine??

Ignition res. wire is the same thing as a ballast res.
Replace it and check the connections and you will run.
The coil gets batt. voltage on crankover and then gets voltage through the ballast or res. wire.

Cory

Geez... That was a question from a looonngg asss time ago.. Yeah, it was the continous ballast resistor connection.. When you first start, full voltage goes right to the distributor and starter, as soon as you go to run the bypass closes and no more juice.. Found out that it was a bad spade connector on the resistor, thats why it would run sometimes and not others.. Damn previous owners and their lousy wireing....Hey Brett, you done with your money pit yet :flipoff2: I want pics!!!!!!!!!Drive that thing to my work so i can check it out...
l8
Jarett