Ignition issue, engine will not start.

[-009-]

Looking for a few ideas that may cause my engine not to start.
It did start and then died within five seconds, on two occasions.
The car was running before the engine was pulled for a rebuild, so
I'm wondering if it could be a wiring fault rather than a component.


- Engine is a fresh 340 build set to 12 BTC (maybe 180 off, piston
  visually seen at TDC)
- It has a total of two sparks one when you initially crank the engine
  and one when you stop cranking it over. (pulled coil wire from the
  distributor check spark)
- At the plugs I'd get one initial spark and that is it.
- Resistor: 12VDV one side and 7VDC on the other, with the ignition on
- Coil: 7VDC on the + side and 1VDC on the - side, with the ignition on.
- Car has a Chrysler Electronic ignition.
- The neutral safety switch was bypassed, though that's not ignition related
  from what I can see.
- Reluctor/pickup gap and it is set to .006.

Things done:
- Verified body ground is good
- Removed the tachometer wire from the coil
- Continuity checks
  - alternator to ballast = good
  - Ballast to + side of coil = good
  - Checked the bulkhead connections = good

Potential issues I'm leaning towards:
- Coil
- ECM
- Ground issue

Thank you for any ideas.

[dodj]

7V at the coil on start will not do. What is the voltage on the brown (coming out of the bulkhead connector) wire when you try to start?
Single or dual ballast electronic ign?

[Cuda Cody]

Welcome to the forum @-009-     sorry to hear you're having engine issues.  That's never any fun, but I'm sure we can help you get it figured out.  Tell us more about what was replaced and what is still original since the engine rebuild?  Same wire that it was running on before the rebuilt?  Same carburetor, new or rebuilt?  When you got it to fire what were you doing (using starting fluid or ?)

[Chryco Psycho]

Welcome to the site from Panama 
let me think on your situation , you have covered most of the faults I look through
weak battery or connection at the column or bulkhead is the only think I can think of immediatly

[1 Wild R/T]

The spark at key on & key off proves the coil & wiring are fine.... The module is capable of firing the coil but it lacks the trigger signal.... Which is why I asked about the reluctor gap over on CC.com..... 99% chance your problem is in the distributor... First verify the rotor is turning... Then if you have another distributor swap it or at least plug in the other distributor & spin it while checking for spark.....

[-009-]

Thanks for the welcome, I'll get around to doing an introduction soon enough.

- I believe the ballast is a single, it has a total of two posts.
- There have been no changes to the ignition system since the engine was removed.
- The engine has only had internals replaced and is using the same Carter carb.
- Engine was running prior to removal with the new engine and dash wiring harness.
- Starter fluid was used, though it didn't fire up immediately after being sprayed.
- The battery is at 12VDC
- Couldn't determine which brown wire. I did check the brown and blue wire at the resistor. With the ignition on its at 7VDC while cranking it dropped to .07VDC.
- Also the neutral safety switch is bypassed, by linking the brown w/yellow stripe to the black w/white stripe. The other black wire on the NSS harness is not used.

Tomorrow I will be doing some more voltage checks before the resistor, as that voltage drop doesn't seem right.

[-009-]

The spark at key on & key off proves the coil & wiring are fine.... The module is capable of firing the coil but it lacks the trigger signal.... Which is why I asked about the reluctor gap over on CC.com..... 99% chance your problem is in the distributor... First verify the rotor is turning... Then if you have another distributor swap it or at least plug in the other distributor & spin it while checking for spark.....

Thanks for the follow-up, I did take a measurement as you mentioned and it was at .006. At the moment I don't have a spare distributor to try, though the one that's installed is rotating and did work before the engine was rebuilt. 

[Cuda Cody]

I've had more bad luck with Distributors than anything else.  I would do what Wild RT double check that. 

[dodj]

The brown wire at the ballast should be supplying 12vdc. Granted, when cranking the starter draws alot of juice and brings that number down, but if the battery was drawn down to 7v the starter would stop. So IMO, you have voltage drop problems due to connections. Could be ingition sw, column connector, bulkhead connector, fusible link connector on the drivers side in the engine compartment.
With the symptoms you describe, I agree with wild, the wiring is likely fine but maybe has bad/poor connections.

[Chryco Psycho]

The battery should read 13.2 v minimum if it i sat 12v it is weak / undercharged , it should be 14.2v minimum running

[Strawdawg]

put your meter on the battery and read the voltage while someone is cranking the engine.  A weak battery, or one wilth a bad cell, will drop below ten volts while the engine is being cranked over.

[-009-]

The problem has been fixed! Thank you guys for the help and leading me in the right direction. In the end, it was a bad connection between the ignition switch harness and dash harness on the I-1 brown wire.

A quick run down of what I did to find the problem so others might be able to solve a similar issue.

- Tested the distributor/coil I bypassed the control module and put a jumper wire from the + battery terminal to the + side of the coil. (engine started)
- Then applied removed the input/power wire from the resistor and put the jumper in its place. (engine started)
- From there I did a few continuity and power test to the ECU using this site http://www.fourforty.com/techstuff/ignition.html (ECU tested good)
- Then pulled wiring harnesses and cleaned all grounds/terminals, in the engine bay. (did not start)

At this point the engine bay wiring was good. The problem was the coil would get voltage before and after cranking the engine over. This led me to me running continuity checks on I-1 the brown wire. This was my problem, in the end, the connection between the plug was fine. The issue was the pin moved back and lost continuity causing the starting issue.

[Chryco Psycho]

Great news , I wondered if you were losing power in 1 of the connectors , having a pin push back would certainly cause an issue