84 Ramcharger ignition ..I have a question...or 2

From : budd cochranmarsh monstermarsh monster

Q: tim my step-dad told me of an old trick used to start ford model ts. crank the engine over a few turns to prime a cylinder and then turn the ignition timer on and off. this made a spark in the charged cylinder and started the engine without risking a broken arm. the ignition module used on his truck is really nothing more than a well sealed transistor ignition. ive not tried it but ive heard rumor of them even working with points instead of the pickup/reluctor. what this means is that if you cycle the ignition on and off the module may read that for a signal from the distributor and make a spark. it does indicate a good ignition system. -- budd cochran well since you get a pop when you let off the key when cranking i would say you arent getting power to the coil when the key is in the crank position. ive run into this problem before on my 82 ramcharger. you should have 2 wires on one side of the ballast one goes to the coil and one comes from the starter relay to feed battery voltage to the coil during cranking i would guess there is a bad connection on the one from the relay. there are 2 quick ways to check if this is the problem one turn the key to run and jump the starter should be the fat brown wire on the starter relay. or feed battery voltage to the coil through the ballast connector with 2 wires on it. if you do this dont keep it hooked up like that for long the coil will get hot if its run with full voltage going to it . or you could unplug the 2 wire connector from the ballast and hook up a test lite to it and see if there is power to it in the crank position the single wire on the ballast feeds power in the run position. i know thats three if any of this works there is a break in the connection between the starter relay and the ballast hope this helps you tim .

Replies:

From : hemipower

marsh monster sez . . . . hemi i gotta ask bud. did you have any of this trouble before messing with the starter to get the dust cover off beware dribble ahead g im going to have to assume yes. i was just getting started to prepare this beast for winter and was rearranging vehicles at the time. i only started it once and said to maself damn what the hell is all that racket and i shut it down. so a few days later i come out to start messing around. i fire it up again and start trying to pinpoint the noise. it almost sounded like an exhaust leak at first so i was crawling around underneath and decided it seemed to be coming from the shield area. shut ut down again. a day later i come out jack it up and put it on stands start and run it a few minutes to put some warmth under there so i dont freeze. remove shield locate scrape marks and check converter bolts and jack at converter to see that it is tight reinstall starter. try to start to verify that noise is gone and no go. try to start for a while and call it a day. next day come out and try to start. fires right up and no noise. let warm a bit and shut off. remove starter again and replace straightened shield. install starter. try to start and no go once again. wiggle wires on brain and ballast with no change. call it a day. come out next day fires right up. let warm shut off no restart. then i start swapping bresister and brains with no luck. then i decided to come here end dribble what follows are direct answers to direct questions. ive followed the post to date....and i havent seen anything stating that you were haveing the trouble prior to the convertor-dust cover deal. no it just sat for the last 8 months. and.....the impression is that the motor is spinning over but not starting. that is correct. at least thats what im pulling from the conversation along with some other bits. so far so good. some questions 4-u.... does thing start fine every time when the engine is cold it has for the last three days since the problem manifested itself. but never when hot that is also correct. is it running good when it does start even when the engine is hot no miss spits sputters absolutely beautiful. never sounded better. is the motor turning over but not starting yes. have you pulled a plug wire and checked for spark no. have you used gas down the intake trying to start it a couple of times. but no go so i know it was not a lack of fuel. have you rechecked all the conections at the starter yes motor spins fine. no noises. new last year. did it short or arc while you were taking it off and putting it on. no i always pull the neg cable from the bat. did you change the ballast resister yes. what parts have you changed brainbresistorstarter relay. keep the dribble to a minimum but give me some solid detail on the questions as far as the results of what youve tried. i have read the thread to date....im just trying to get you to cut through the dribble and give a good line by line diagnose and repair post .....to eliminate any confusion. this thing starts fine when cold runs good runs good while its hot when shut down after its hot ....it will not fire up but the motor turns over. exactly. ..................................... ifs......... pouring fuel down the intake does not work you have spark at the plugs and the plugs are good it runs good when it starts cold and it continues to run good even when hot untill its shut down then.....its not a compression issue its electrical!!!!!!!! at this point i feel that i must agree with you. and im thunkn its got something to do with taking that starter off.... pickup ignition module ballast resister i will be posting an up date today. check out that post. a link.... chrysler electronic ignition addresshttp//www.fourforty.com/techstuff/ignition.html changed114 pm on saturday august 22 1998 jest trying to help thats cool and i appreciate it thanks for the input marsh monster. marshmonster =================== ===================. 84 ramcharger ignition strange one from hemipower@aol.com hemipower these units are usually so rock solid that this one has me stumped. back ground this is a plow truck that sat all summer i fired it up to start getting it ready for winter. there was a horrible noise that i found to be the trans dust guard being hit by a converter bolt. i removed teh guard and went to restart the truck with no go. what the heck switched out the control module and ballast resistor. checked the ohms on the pick up and all seemed fine. still no start. then for some reason it finally fired and ran and i restarted it a few more times. ok. remove starter again to replace the now straightened dust cover and again no start. one strange t