Electronic Ignition.........Advice

[Dave81]

Hey guys,

Finally after 8 months got the car out today in the sun, and had a good look around the engine bay. Being a 72 its got the Chrysler electronic ignition and 4 pin ballast resistor.

One of the issue, queries that i have is first the Ignition module.......


As you can see its seen better days! I have no idea what the gel type substance is (been there since i bought the car)? When hooked up to the battery you get a distinctive fizzing style noise from it, so understanadbly would like to remove and replace.

What would you guys recomend?

From my initial research it seems i can replace with new Orange/Chrome box, replace with HEI/GM type and ditch the ballast resistor, or bin the lot and go MSD or similar..................Opinions please?

Second, one of the things that seems odd to me is that there is a battery style cable (thick wire) running directly fro the Alternator to the + Battery terminal?

The only info that seems to coincide with why this may be done, is for instance, you had upgraded to a Denso style Alt. According to one website the original Mopar squareback gives out 35/40 amps. The Denso gives out 90Amps and as such the wiring is not built to handle that amount of power.

A way around it is by hooking up straight to the battery +'ve terminal, thus saving it frying the standard wiring?

I don't believe my alt is anything but standard Mopar though..........Any ideas, my only other guess is that its not supplying the battery as it should via the normal route and thus draining the battery over time????

Best guesses chaps.......And a photo or 3.......

[the bishop]

The thick wire has been added to bypass the troublesome bulkhead connector the only problem with it is if it rubs through on any bodywork its always live..

[Steve]

Hi Dave,

I recently had some invaluable help from Ade Worman re my electronic ignition...... Mine was running a mopar perf electronic ignition with a mechanical regulator.... He talked me through fitting an electronic reg and a new twin field alternator etc. Im sure if you PM him he will be able to help you. Very knowledgeable. Also, Jon at FBO (turnip) stocks loads of kit if you need parts and again, he is really helpful.

Nice to see you are escaping the nappies in favour of the Mopar for an hour or two!

Cheers Steve

[Dave-R]

Bin the lot and fit HEI. Smal neat and works better than the chrysler system.

[Steve]

Whats HEI Dave?

[Dave-R]

Whats HEI Dave?

Type HEI into the search thing at the top of the message board.

[Steve]

Tried that but my iphone wont let me search for some reason... Will look on laptop when home later.

Cheers

[drewcrane]

Bin the lot and fit HEI. Smal neat and works better than the chrysler system.

Yea it is the best route,as those old modules will melt in the sun sitting on the window sill,that melt down is typical

[mopar_mark]

Whats HEI Dave?

High Energy Ignition (Electronic)

[Dave999]

HEI.

1972 chrylser puts electronic igntion on cars..the modul is supposed to be a product of work they did for the moon buggy.

its basically a transistor that replaces the points with a small circuit that picks up signal from the meganetic pickup in the new Dizzy...

apart from not having to repalce points and a slightly better tollerance to dizzy shaft ware....its no better than points due to the limits imposed by the electronics.... it can only switch the same current as points i.e 2-3 amps

1974 oil crisis and smog. GM and many other manufatcures decide they can't beat the Govt into submission over impending federal rules regarding emsssions and catalytic converters
the invent a cat that is not very good and discover that if it gets lots of unburnt fuel in it it stops working and goes on fire

they build HEI as a solution....make certain everything gets burnt...

its a chip which has in it a circuit with takes trigger signal from a magnetic pickup in the Dizzy and uses a variation on the transistor as a switch theme for the points.....

but this time

it can handle 5-7 amps..

so instead of usuing the not very good round oil filled coil with a solid iron core

they use something akin to the transformer you find in a valve radio.

laminated iron shim core much better at doing the magnetism stuff than a rod of iron due to limiting eddy currents and better magnetic flux concentration

they relaise that this thing is going to get hot

so they impliment a dwell circuit that changes the dwell beased on the resistance of the coil and the RPM

they tune it so the dwell is limited at LOW rpm

system can provide a good spark on a v8 from 1000 to 7000 rpm

mopar box 40-150 quid
HEI module £17 + shipping

this would do the job
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/E-TRON-D1906- ... 5ae2ce2e7c

basically
go to hardware place
get section of angle iron
cut to shape of module
leave tab on the other angle
get big jubilee clip

clamp bracket with module mounted to dizzy

2 wires from Dizzy pick up to module

and two wires from module to new 12 volt coil

diconnect old loom

connect all ballast resistor wires together

run a fat wire from there to coil +

start car and set timing..

as you coil gets hot its resistance rises and the module detects this lowers the dwell to let the coil cool again.... its quite clever

been running mine for 10 years and replaced modul last year as part of a general refresh due to intermittent electrical fault.....still don't know what that was...

use this serach in ebay to look for modules

(AC DELCO,Wells,petronix,car quest,Napa, niehoff,Borg Warner,GM,Mallory,jegs,moroso) (DM 1906,D1906,ACC35361,aCC35367,D2000,21040,ECH TP45, Dr400 ,CBe4,cbe22,10482820,607,555-40600,97857) (module,hei,)

Dave

[Steve]

Thanks for that Dave!!! Very interesting and put together in a way I can understand... Looks like a great piece of kit

Cheers Steve

[Dave999]

not the be all and end all but quite nifty

and with a suitable coil you just can't knock the bang fo ya buck.
escpecially when compared with MSD which even for the lowest cost option are great but quite expensive

With the mopar box you are always paying quite a larger % of the total cost for the massive transistor the welded metal case and the big ally heat sink

the rest is maplins/farnel stock-bin descrete components which even if machine soldered have a labour cost associated that will be greater than a production line produced chip in a plastic package...

got to get the wires from the dizzy the right way round or it won't work

other than that

very nearly plug and play if you have a 12 volt transformer coil to hand (anything off a 1 coil 80s/90s machine that looks nothing like the round coil we are used to.

or using the pin out picture

mount the module in the guts of your old mopar box...

swap coil and by pass ballast resistor with loops of wire and piggy back spade connectors

keeps it looking standard

your mopar 8 volt coil will die a quick death if you don't run a ballast

Dave

[Dave81]

Thanks again for the input chaps.

Found this Dave999......
http://duster318.freeservers.com/tech/hei.html

Havent had a chance to read through all of it but seems to follow what you are saying.

From what i understand though is you upgrade the mopar box to the GM HEI and upgrade the Coil, there is no requirement for the Ballast Resistor?

Cheers,

Dave

[Adrian Worman]

Yep that's right, don't see a ballast resister on any GM HEI engined cars, really neat, simple and cheap
Don't mean it'll never fail tho', I had plenty of late T/A's require the odd component but still cheap to repair

[Dave999]

other Links here as well

http://www.moparuk.com/forums/viewtopic ... hlight=hei


and how to make one work with points

http://www.moparuk.com/forums/viewtopic ... hlight=hei

which is not missing the point...as it were

can also be used to drive Tach or EFI

Dave