The Dodge Challenger Message Board

1973 Chally 340

Help,

I found the problem but dont know what to do. My 73 would not idle when in gear so I checked timing, etc the logical stuff. I purchased a new coil and it helped but the coil was still getting very hot and still no luck with idling when in gear.

So I seemed to recall in my early years/days of mopar tricks of jumping from the positive battery cable to the coil to bypass the igniton switch (Not sure if thats what I am bypassing) but what the heck, I ran a wire from the coil to the battery post and all my idling issues went away and the car runs great

I clearly am bypassing something would it be the ballast resistor or the Ignition Control Unit or do I need to get a high performance coil or is it something else.

Where can I buy any of the parts that you might suggest?

All help is appreciated and please remember I have forgotten more than I remember.


As always, I appreciate all suggestions


Brad

You are bypassing the bulkhead connector and a connector in the steering column. Both places where bad connections occur.

However you are also by-passing the ballast resistor. You could have bad contacts there too but by-passing it is going to kill your coil. In fact it may be alrady dead by the time you read this.

First of all. The coil does not run at battery voltage. It only sees battery voltage when starting. After that it gets a lower voltage through the ballast resistor. Without the resistor the coil will get HOT and fail.

The second thing you have done is connect the coil to a permanant feed from the battery. So it is "ON" all the time. That alone will make it hot never mind the fact you are putting too much voltage over it.

I am not sure that the ignition was the problem anyway.

Poor idle mixture and the wrong idle speed will do this. In fact if it idles OK in Park and only stalls in gear i don't see how that can be the ignition?

Using a too low stall speed torque converter will do it too. You can tell if your torque converter is too low a speed if it pulls the idle rpms down a lot when you put it in gear.

Dave,

I will go ahead and replace the coil and ballast resistor since these are relatively cheap.

I must tell you that I messed with the idle speed and fuel mixture, for quite sometime and couldn't seem to dial in in where it would idle when in gear.

This is a recent issue as I never had a problem with idling in gear. I did notice the coil was getting extremely hot prior to the idle stalling issue and replaced the coil. This made the engine idle in drive a bit better but still left me with the idle stalling issue.

I guess what is confusing to me (Remember I am a novice) is that a direct wire from the battery to the coil made the engine/car run absolutely perfect, so I assumed that I had a bad electrical switch.

Should I run out and get an accel coil and ballast resistor as opposed to standard and should this not correct the problem, I should focus back on the idling and air fuel mixture?

Some other info, it starts fine and as I suggested idles well in park, everything goes to hell when a load is put on it.

As always thanks for your guidance


Brad

A better spark might be helping if the mixture is wrong.

If it is the spark being weak then it might be the bulkhead connector. A bad contact there (high resistance) will cause a weak spark. I would clean the contacts in the connector to clean bright metal and try again.

You need to tune the carb as well. i have instructions on that in the engine section.

Changed plug wires, new accel coil and cleaned carb, messed with idle and mix - go figure it idles in gear now. It actually runs very very good

Although it is dentonating after I shut the engine down but at least it will run and idle.

I will check out tuning carb piece you suggested.

Thanks for the help

Big car show at Year One next Saturday, should have both cars ready............

Lower your idle RPM a bit.

Idle speed should be 800rpm for automatics.