smoking components

[morbidgoat]

ok so i started this thread under electrical but not getting a lot of responses

mind you i started with a gutted shell and am working at putting this car together and am currently up to the electrical i did get the car with harnesses however nothing was labled i bought a wire diagram for my 69 gtx that was extremely helpful

i also bought a used electronic ignition system and a new accel super coil which gave me a new ballast resistor

i hooked every thing up per the wiring schematic and when i turned the key after about 10 secs the voltage reg started smoking not sure if it was any good or if the point style reg worked with elec ign. i got a new voltage reg for the 70's style cars and altered my harness to plug into it now when i turn the key on the about 20 secs later the ballast resistor starts smoking so im thinking something is shorting out somewhere i found that the black and yellow wire coming from the ignition control module to the coil neg was grounding out the system i thought maybe i had a bad module and the guy i bought the system from gave me two modules so i tried the other one still same effect i then started thinking its possible both boxes are bad so i took them to autozone and had them tested both passed i inspected all the wires and every thing looks in good condition and is hooked up correctly so here i sit whats causing my ballast to smoke? i believe its the system grounding itself out that causes the smoke (putting a hot lead to a ground) but the part that is causing the ground seems to be fine according to autozones tester???????

 

[morbidgoat]

so i checked all the wires everything seems good i even went out and bought a new ignition control box still same problem im getting real upset now just dont know what my problem is

 

[1badstroker]

Go to mymopar.com. Click on the left side on my mopar tools /reference. Then look for electrical wiring and then the mopar electronic ignition convern instructions. Print it and check you wiring. I used that wiring and have had no problems. I soldered and heat strinked all wires when I made sure all the stuff was right. Good luck, Hope it helps cause it is a bummer when things don't work out.

 

[morbidgoat]

i have mine wired exactly like that however the black and yellow wire is acting as a constant ground and of course when you put a hot wire to a ground the weakest part of the system will over heat, wich happens to be the ballast resistor so therefore it starts to smoke i have no clue what else to do

 

[morbidgoat]

well it will start and run wired the way i have it i havent ran it long enough to see if the ballast resistor smokes when running however it still gets hot and smokes if you leave the key in the on position not running but as time is going on its taking longer before it starts smoking if any one else is running a four prong ign control box with the 2 prong ballast resistor could you do me a favor and unplung both wires off the ballast res and run a volt meter to each of these wire leads, does it show voltage? how many volts?

 

[bbodychick]

I've always used a five prong box and 4 prong ballast, wired exactly from the diagram at mymopar.com and never had a problem.....never used a meter either, just a test light to verify voltage was there...all my cars, once running, can be started from outside the car on first crank.

 

[68ChargerAG]

ok so i started this thread under electrical but not getting a lot of responses

mind you i started with a gutted shell and am working at putting this car together and am currently up to the electrical i did get the car with harnesses however nothing was labled i bought a wire diagram for my 69 gtx that was extremely helpful

i also bought a used electronic ignition system and a new accel super coil which gave me a new ballast resistor

i hooked every thing up per the wiring schematic and when i turned the key after about 10 secs the voltage reg started smoking not sure if it was any good or if the point style reg worked with elec ign. i got a new voltage reg for the 70's style cars and altered my harness to plug into it now when i turn the key on the about 20 secs later the ballast resistor starts smoking so im thinking something is shorting out somewhere i found that the black and yellow wire coming from the ignition control module to the coil neg was grounding out the system i thought maybe i had a bad module and the guy i bought the system from gave me two modules so i tried the other one still same effect i then started thinking its possible both boxes are bad so i took them to autozone and had them tested both passed i inspected all the wires and every thing looks in good condition and is hooked up correctly so here i sit whats causing my ballast to smoke? i believe its the system grounding itself out that causes the smoke (putting a hot lead to a ground) but the part that is causing the ground seems to be fine according to autozones tester???????

I am currently working on installing MP electronic ignition conversion and the super coil as well on a 68 Charger. On the electronics module for the ignition the black and yellow wire goes to the neg post on the coil and blue wire goes to the HOT (12V from battery with ignition key ON) side of the ballast resistor. It looks like you have all of that correct as long as you are on the right side of the resistor. In the picture in your other thread, I see that there are two wires connected to one of the posts of the coil... that doesn't look right. There should only be the one coming from the ballast resistor to the positive post and the black and yellow from the ignition controller to the negitive post... what is that other wire? That might be your problem.

I also saw your other thread, and not sure if you corrected it yet, but the ballast resistor that came with the electronic ignition is the one to use, the one that came with the coil is for use with point type ignition and goes in SERIES with the other one in front of the positive post of the coil.


Please keep us posted on what else you find.

 

[rdrunner1974]

Wiring diagram

Looking at your pics, I'm not sure that you have things wired correct. Do as suggested and print out the conversion schematic from mymopar.com
Follow each wire from point of origin to each location. On the resistor, you will have battery voltage (12 volt) nominal on one side and 7-8 volt on the other which goes to the + side of the coil. There is also another wire from the start relay which gives 12 volt to the coil on start only.
The ECU gets battery voltage, not the reduced 7-8 volts. The 2 wire plug lead on the ECU goes to the dist. which breaks the ground.
Be sure that the ECU is mounted on a clean surface which allows it to be grounded. Scrape the paint under where it mounts, I have added a ground wire between the ECU and mount surface which is connected to the engine ground strap.
Hope this helps. If I'm wrong on anything some one will correct me.

 

[morbidgoat]

so i only had the one bal res that came with the coil hooked up i got the one for the ecu and now have both hooked up as for the second wire on the resistor thats the 12v start wire the car does start and run fine like this but when not running the bal resistor still gets warm not sure how hot it will get works fine as long as engine is running though so im not to worried

 

[69 Runner]

If it's getting hot when the motor isn't running and the key is off, then you've got a constant 12v getting to it from somewhere

 

[68ChargerAG]

so i only had the one bal res that came with the coil hooked up i got the one for the ecu and now have both hooked up as for the second wire on the resistor thats the 12v start wire the car does start and run fine like this but when not running the bal resistor still gets warm not sure how hot it will get works fine as long as engine is running though so im not to worried

Sounds good... I had actually mentioned that there was a second wire going to one of the coil posts that doesn't seem like it should be there, not to the resistor. What is that second wire hooked up to one of the coil posts, there should be only one per post... one from the ballast resistor(s) going to + and one going back to the ECU from the -.

I also read that this coil will draw power and heat up over time if you leave the ignition on for extended time without the car running, so they recomend not doing it or the coil can burst (I would think that it would take a while for it to get to that point though)... maybe that is what you are seeing though, and it is heating the resistor up too because it is drawing power with the ignition on but the car not running.

 

[rdrunner1974]

Stray voltage

2X what 69 Runner said. If it gets hot with ign. off, you must have voltage at the resister. Have you taken a meter or test light to see if there is voltage with the key off?? You may have a bad start relay that the conacts are fused together for the 12 volts to bal. resister on start. This would also mean that you have always 12 volt to coil rather than the 7-8 volt when in run. The ign. switch turns off the 12 volt to the ECU which will stop the engine but 12 volts could remain at bal. resister and coil.
Check for voltage ot ciol with key OFF, if it's there check the start relay.

 

[68ChargerAG]

I believe that he said the coil only gets hot when the key is on, not with it off. "when i turned the key after about 10 secs the voltage reg started smoking"

 

[69 Runner]

Big difference between the COIL getting hot, and the REGULATOR getting hot (as in your quote above)

 

[68ChargerAG]

LOL... OK, you got me. :blush:
But I still think that he only means when the ignition is on that he has the problem.

 

[69 Runner]

Guess we'd know for sure if he'd answer huh:rolling:

 

[morbidgoat]

sorry havent been on for a while and yes at one point i said the volt reg was smoking then later i said the ball resis was smoking. the first time i hooked it up i had the stock for 69 voltage reg installed which i recieved in a box of parts when i bought the rolling chassis, so it could have been bad to start i then changed out the 69 volt reg for 70's style volt reg. im pretty sure thats where my problem started because the 70's style has a red wire and a green wire so i assumed green still goes to feild and red just went to 12 v key on. after i changed the volt reg i turned the key back on not trying to actually start the car but just to see if parts would smoke this time volt reg was fine however ball resis started to smoke and i only had the one ball ressis that came with the coil hooked up. like this if i left the key on for more than 10 sec the resis would start to smoke. i decided to see if it would run like that and she fired right up no problem. i was later told that i needed 2 ballast resistors for this system so i bought a new 2 prong ballast from fleet farm and wired that one in line with the one that came with the super coil i turned the key to the on position and the ball resistors still get hot after a while however i start the car i have had it run for over 30 mins before i shut it off and it seemed fine exept for the charging system the way it is currently wired it keeps frying alts and volt regs i gave up for the year and this spring i just plan on eliminating the volt reg and getting a one wire altenator (internally regulated) from summit.