she died again........@$^@#^...just need to vent a little

[shadango]

Another alternative is the Ballast resistor.  I had the same symptom of the car starting when I crank it.  The engine starts, but as soon as I let go of the key, it died immediately.  Did this over and over.  Before it got to this point, my car would die when Im driving and then start right up.  It got worse where it died at a red light and it would only crank. 
Ruled out fuel problem because it did not sputter when it died.  It was just like you said, dies immediately. 
I finally found my problem.  One of the wires was loose in the terminal that is connected to the ballast resistor.  So another thing to check is the connections to the ballast resistor or the resistor is going bad as it heats up.  So my problem was big, but it was a simple fix.

Connections seem ok....I had this issue last season (again, crappy connector quality of the Bill Evans harness)...removed the connectors from the plastic plugs and used that way.....I may try tightening up those connectors just a bit too....

[shadango]

Well after some serious thought, I have decided to send the harness back to B.E. per his suggestion......I thought I had the issue licked last fall and didnt send it back when he offered.

But with the issue persisting, and remembering that I found a total of 4 bad connections already in the harness, I think ity would be best to have him go over it and make it right.

Ticks me off....I thought a new harness would eliminate the possibility of electrical gremlins.....its bad enough i have to send back on my dime ,,,but then to have the car down for a week while the sun blazes outside.....

well......            LOL

[ChallengerHK]

The connector (the one with the large gauge yellow, red, brown, and blue wires)at the bottom of your steering column, could give you the problem you are describing. 
Wouldn't hurt to examine/take it apart and check it out.

When I first bought my car (circa, oh 1980) I had similar problems. I don't recall all the details now, but short form is that the main ignition wire in the column harness was overheating and had melted the connector, which I guess was pulling the two terminals away from each other long enough to shut down the spark. Months later it died for good, and that ended up being the ammeter. Don't know if the two were related, but I replaced the ammeter with a unit from a parts car and neither problem showed up again.

[shadango]

 

I am so pissed right now.

Took the car out to pickup the kids......well it was fine till we got almost home and it died.  At first I thought I had no fuel.....my gas pressure gauge under the hood showed zero and the fuel filter looked dry......we were on a steep uphill when it died.....anyways, tinkered a bit....stuck a old spark plug in #1 wire and held it against the header bolt while my son cranked, and I had some spark...dammit.....otherwise just pressed in wires, connections etc and she fired....away we went.  Got it home....

Let it idle in drive in my driveway and she eventually died again...GREAT! Now I can test.....stuck a spark plug in #1 plug wire and held it hear the valve cover and I have spark, but still no start.......and this time I have gas pressure.   Next crank it started up......it seems to have spark during cranking when it dies......and gas....so it should run right?!?!  I cant test for spark during "run" if its not running.......or can I?

Watched the fuel in the fuel filter bubbling through.....seems like the gas flows in fits and starts to some degree and a lot of bubbles...the idle, remember, is rough in this car so some uneveness in the gas wopuld be expected at idle I think due to the rough idle (mechanical pump).......but I did have gas in the filter (clear one) there when it would die....and gas would shoot down into the carb as well...at least I saw it come from the venturis at the top........I took some video of the gas filter but not sure it really shows anything....

One of the times it would not start I sprayed some starting fluid into the carb and still no start.....so my guess is gas is NOT the issue....  (?)

Then I started messing with the wires to the ballast and noticed the dual brown one was a little loose....swapped ballasts out and first crank it started.....seemed to run ok...swapped in the old ballast, and she started then died right away and wouldnt start again....cool!  Tightened up the connector on the brown wires and tried again..no start.....repeated a few times thinking I was on to something (bad ballast).  Each time I would swap the new ballast in it would fire right up.....swap the old one in, and no start....or it would start then die right away....Then swapped in the old one one last time and of course she wouldnt die at all..... 

I had to walk away.

Guys I am at wits end, really.

I cant be driving on the streets like this. What I cant figure out is what changed since last season.  This issue didnt pop up at all once I found the two bad wires in the harness main plug.....

And now its back....

I am lost.

On top of that I have the wife ticked at me for keeping the boy outside with me late....he has tests tomorrow and he needs to get to bed early tonight...

I pulled the harness to send back to be gone over so as to rule that all out.

I dunno. Words cant express my frustration right now.

If I was a drinking man I would be neck deep in JD right now.   
***4/6 7:13 am EST  --  edited for ferocious spelling errors.

[drewcrane]

i feel your pain, that too has happened to me
there is always a **** ton of electrical issues,

have you tried the starter relay? that was an issue due to one simple problem, it wasnt grounded well enough,it is on the inner fender panel and has to have a good ground to the chassis,there could be some corrosion that built up during the off season

i wlll be installing one of these units here soon, since using the chassis as a ground on a 40 year old car is not as efficient as a direct ground to the battery,

i am going to run a heavy wire to the battery,and to one of these big posts,and then i will wire the engine to the other big post, and run the rest of the units i need grounded to this "ground it "block,

the guy i got this from made it for boats and motor homes,and street rods all 3 of these have ground problems, i have seen(and im sure some of you have too) a few motor homes on fire on the side of the road as well as bad grounds on boats too,so this unit will solve alot of problems, i cant wait to install it,it just makes sense



here is his site

http://www.shogunindustries.com/cgi-bin/ws400CS.cgi


also read this

https://www.shogunindustries.com/cgi-bin/ws400CS.cgi?cart_id=1100406060529317&page=products.htm&view_item=101004

[cudagirl4406pk]

My cuda did the same stuff the harness going down the column would not stay connected since the clip was broke and i was losing all power nothing worked.The way i fixed all  my electrical problems is i took out the factory crap and had my husband install a RON FRANCIS kit and not i no longer have any problems.


michele

[shadango]

I will double check the ground for the start relay....

I did check the column wiring while it was running...I twisted, wiggled , moved, boogied, cajoled, etc the tow plug connectors and couldnt get the motor to stumble or anything.....my plan is to pull the connectors apart and double check the pins etc...but sure seems like if that were the issue, there would be 'something' when I wiggled etc......     

[shadango]

When I first bought my car (circa, oh 1980) I had similar problems. I don't recall all the details now, but short form is that the main ignition wire in the column harness was overheating and had melted the connector, which I guess was pulling the two terminals away from each other long enough to shut down the spark. Months later it died for good, and that ended up being the ammeter. Don't know if the two were related, but I replaced the ammeter with a unit from a parts car and neither problem showed up again.

How did you know the ammeter was bad?

[Bullitt-]

I know of a workaround if all else fails.. I'm thinking of doing this just because.
   same principle as head light relays, just applied to the ignition, still need some
voltage through the harness & switch just not as much.

[UKcuda]

Then I started messing with the wires to the ballast and noticed the dual brown one was a little loose....swapped ballasts out and first crank it started.....seemed to run ok...swapped in the old ballast, and she started then died right away and wouldnt start again....cool!  Tightened up the connector on the brown wires and tried again..no start.....repeated a few times thinking I was on to something.  Each time I would swap the new ballast in it would first right up.....old one, no start....or it would start then die right away....Then swapped in the old one one last time and she wouldnt die at all.....

As it is such an intermittent fault that you could still be looking at an iffy ballast - seems you couldn't find any problem using the new one, so why not run it for a while like that and see what happens.

If it's not that then my money is on its being a faulty ECU.  I had a very very similar experience when I first got my car running.  It would just die or not start and I was checking all the connections and wiggling things (just like you) and then off it would go, only to die again at some random moment.  When I swapped over a spare ECU it was immediately and completely cured.

I later swapped for my home made HEI system, but not because the Mopar system had any more faults.

Hope the boy's tests went OK.

[shadango]

As it is such an intermittent fault that you could still be looking at an iffy ballast - seems you couldn't find any problem using the new one, so why not run it for a while like that and see what happens.

If it's not that then my money is on its being a faulty ECU.  I had a very very similar experience when I first got my car running.  It would just die or not start and I was checking all the connections and wiggling things (just like you) and then off it would go, only to die again at some random moment.  When I swapped over a spare ECU it was immediately and completely cured.

I later swapped for my home made HEI system, but not because the Mopar system had any more faults.

Hope the boy's tests went OK.

Seeing as there seems to be spark when cranking, would that rule out the ECU?

I was really hopping it was "just" the ballast.....but there might be maybe 1000 miles if that on the current ballast...could it really be bad/intermittant like that?    It was looking that way during the testing until the very end when it ran just fine with the current ballast.  But maybe you are right and it is an iffy ballast.

the harness is going off in the post today.....wont be able to test anything til it returns I guess.   Planning on pulling the igntion switch plugs apart just to check but they look fine from the exterior and the engine doesnt blink at all when wiggling them while running.  I was considering swapping out the ignition switch during the downtime.....anyone think that could act his way? Where would I test for voltage in the "on" position when it dies...just at the coil?

Its obvious that the big problem here is how intermittant it is....other than replacing parts not sure how one could test anything for certain....

[tman]

You said the double brown wires were loose.  What did you do to tighten it up?  I had to remove the terminal from the plastic cover.  The wires were loose within the metal terminal.  I had to remove the wire, fix the terminal, and then recrimp.  I then soldered the wire to the terminal and then put it back into the plastic cover.  After plugging it back onto the ballast resistor, I have had no problem since. 

[shadango]

The wires themselves "seem" tight in the terminal....the terminal itself was a little sloppy when connected to the ballast.....so I squeezed the perminal together a bit, if that makes sense.

[shadango]

When I first bought my car (circa, oh 1980) I had similar problems. I don't recall all the details now, but short form is that the main ignition wire in the column harness was overheating and had melted the connector, which I guess was pulling the two terminals away from each other long enough to shut down the spark. Months later it died for good, and that ended up being the ammeter. Don't know if the two were related, but I replaced the ammeter with a unit from a parts car and neither problem showed up again.

Hey ChallengerHK -- just wondering.....did your dash gauges etc go out when it would happen to you?

Seems to me that if the ignition switch  (the "run" circuit) or its wiring were the issue for it cutting out, wouldnt the dash go dead too?

[shadango]

have you tried the starter relay? that was an issue due to one simple problem, it wasnt grounded well enough,it is on the inner fender panel and has to have a good ground to the chassis,there could be some corrosion that built up during the off season

I was ruling out the starter relay as it only comes into play when cranking, right?