Will leaving Ignition key on kill ECU box?

[MoparGuy68]

I don’t know to laugh or cry

Don’t cut anything , I don’t want you ruining your harness

A needle nose vice grips will now solve your issue , hopefully breaking the nut/splitting up to the screw as your turning it out

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about this car in general.. if I had a crystal ball, in November 2019, to look into before buying this car, I don’t think I would’ve bought it. It’s taken up an enormous amount, of the little free time that I’ve had, over the past year and two months that I’ve had it.

I already started to cut on my harness.. Guess I will I have to purchase a pair of needle nose vise grips and try that. I was able to grip the acorn firmly with the needle nose pliers. But when doing so while turning the screw head with a wrench it was just twisting up and mangling the acorn. The screw does NOT want to turn counterclockwise at ALL out of the acorn. It’s firmly locked in place by the worst ECU acorn ever installed on an ECU box. This issue alone makes me feel I’d be better off with a breaker point distributor.

I thought of breaking out my Dremel tool and trying to Dremel into the acorn, destroying it enough, so I can get the screw out of it. I will never ever, ever, ever, again insert one of these screws into an ECU box. I’ll never forget this incident.

 

[Bee1971]

Needle Nose Vice Grips is a lot cheaper then a new wiring harness



I have had the five pins come out of the rubber wiring harness and stay attached to the pins on the ECU when removing

 

[66 Sat]

I finally managed to get needle nose on the acorn but as you can see turning the screw just bent up the acorn. The screw is locked onto the acorn. I’ll never put one of these screws into an ECU again after this nightmare.

I could cut the rubber off beneath the head of the screw to give enough room to get a hacksaw in there and cut the head off the screw with a hacksaw. So I can then drive the thing out with a punch. Unbeelievable!!

Trying to grab with the needle nose and rotate screw with a wrench. That just mangled the acorn even worse.. I have no other idea to get this piece of **** off other than to hacksaw it off and **** up my wiring harness in the process. I'm really pissed off with this Ehrenberg box!

Again I repeat this exact same screw had no problem screwing in and out of two other ECU boxes, neither one of which were from Ehrenberg.

View attachment 1073036 View attachment 1073037 View attachment 1073038

Are you saying you still can't get that gold colored screw out? Push on the bottom of the screw (the threaded part) with a piece of flat metal, a wrench, anything metal really, while turning the screw out with another wrench. It should be a very simple job.

 

[MoparGuy68]

Are you saying you still can't get that gold colored screw out? Push on the bottom of the screw (the threaded part) with a piece of flat metal, a wrench, anything metal really, while turning the screw out with another wrench. It should be a very simple job.

Yes that is exactly what I am saying.
It really is anything but simple! The screw is locked to the acorn as if it was welded to it. It will not budge when turning it counterclockwise (unscrewing). All it does is turn the acorn against the needle nose, mangling it more and more, each time I attempt to turn it counterclockwise.
I really should make a video to show how unfucking believable this ridiculous problem is.. I can’t start my engine, and on top of it I have to deal with this stupid ****.

It’s crazy what you encounter when trying to make a 50-year-old car,
that’s tired of living, run and drive.

 

[66 Sat]

If it won't turn counterclockwise then try tightening it slightly first, then loosening it - it must be jammed on a burr in the thread. If that doesn't work then buy a small drill bit (smaller that the screw diameter obviously) and carefully drill the the screw out (from the top).

 

[mopar 3 B]

Some how this sounds like the guy at Firestone that could not start my truck Friday while using the wrong key.

Not that it is related anyway to the start problem but just want to know the reason anyone would need a 7500 rpm ecu in a street car capable of maybe on a good day of 6000 rpm? I see it as the old my chrome covers will add twenty hp thing. Or is it bragging rights to I have money to waste on stupid stuff? Not that I want to ruffle feathers and receive stupid insults.

 

[MoparGuy68]

Some how this sounds like the guy at Firestone that could not start my truck Friday while using the wrong key.

Not that it is related anyway to the start problem but just want to know the reason anyone would need a 7500 rpm ecu in a street car capable of maybe on a good day of 6000 rpm? I see it as the old my chrome covers will add twenty hp thing. Or is it bragging rights to I have money to waste on stupid stuff? Not that I want to ruffle feathers and receive stupid insults.

I bought the HiRev ECU because several people claimed it was a good ECU box that works like it’s supposed to. Most of the ECU boxes are poorly made and unreliable junk. I don’t care about high RPMs, as long as the box can handle 4500 to 5000 RPM that’s fine with me.

The crap box that was on the car when I bought it was misfiring at as low as only 3000 RPMs. Bragging rights had nothing to do with my purchase whatsoever. Avoiding poorly manufactured garbage was my motivation in getting this box.

With that said, I can assure you the acorn securing nut on this box is an epic failure at what it was intended to do.

This same gold screw used to be in the made in China misfiring box. I had this very same screw in and out of that China box several times with no issue. Also had it in and out of an old MP box. The screw is not the problem the acorn nut in the Ehrenberg box is the problem.

The acorn nut in the Ehrenberg box didn’t feel quite right from the moment I first put the screw in it. I made a huge mistake by not testing the screw in that ******* nut before I connected my harness to the box.

I’ve had these screws in and out of MP Boxes before many years ago and never had a problem like this.

Maybe that answers your questions. I know this whole thing with the screw sounds quite amusing, but I can assure anyone reading this that it wouldn’t be amusing if it was happening to you and ******* up your expensive harness.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Easy electronic distributor check. | For A Bodies Only Mopar Forum

 

[Bee1971]

Easy electronic distributor check. | For A Bodies Only Mopar Forum

He has spark at the coil - He wasn’t grounding the spark plug wires properly and I caught that after we led him diving into the distributor

So I told him to put everything back together and we would move onto fuel

Problem is , the nut the ECU nut is driving him nuts , did we catch that



That distributor check needs to go in the other ignition thread that won’t start

The last three weeks in WI , I could have used a vacation in Arizona

 

[Ron H]

You can check for a spark at the plug by pulling the boot cap back and hold the wire an 8th to 1/4 inch away from the plug with a pliers. I'd be inclined to get a new cap and rotor anyway being you say they're 'old'. No way the plug wires were could have been reconnected improperly (if you had them off the plugs or cap)? If this could be be a fuel issue, by now you should have been smelling gas quite a bit...if not that's a quick signal...look down the carb and move the throttle open you should see gas squirting from the jets. As for the screw, as posted go to the store and get a pair of needle nose vice grips or if you have a friend with a one borrow them. If you have someone to give you a hand, as posted, get a tight grip on the threaded end with the grips and the harness, with another loosening the screw with a socket wrench or box end, to turn it out. The threads may have gotten skanked when threaded into the ECU.

 

[MoparGuy68]

Update on the NO Start..
Disconnected the fuel line from carburetor cranked and plenty of fuel coming out of the fuel line so nothing wrong with the fuel pump or the vapor separator filter. Both float bowls full of gas.

Pulled plug number one. Plug was completely dry and looked just like it did when I put it in the engine this past July. There was absolutely no gasoline smell on the plug whatsoever.

Oh, I got that SCREW out of the acorn nut that was stuck in the ECU harness connector. I had to remove the entire engine wiring harness from the car and work on it on a table. I was able to get the screw out in one piece without destroying it, but it wasn’t easy..

Tried the old made in China ECU and a different ballast resistor, still no start, absolutely no combustion happening.

I came to the conclusion that the carburetor must be gummed up. Maybe the passageways in the metering block are clogged. I don’t think it’s supplying fuel to the intake manifold anymore.

Was going to get a rebuild kit, then decided not to **** around rebuilding a probably 20+ year old carburetor. My engine was sitting without running for a cumulative total of nine months last year, so maybe that contributed to the problem. Engine always ran rough between 1200 to 1500 RPM too, even before any of the sitting without running.

So I bought a brand spanking new Holley 80508S 4160 750 CFM. The new equivalent of what is on there now. I’m going to swap the carburetor out tomorrow. Will see if it starts with the new $377 carb...

 

[Ron H]

I would have checked to see if gas was squirting through the jets. You checked fuel able to enter the carb - but is it exiting. Just a quick thought. If you have this happening you would be smelling gas easily with the repeated engine cranking.

 

[MoparGuy68]

I would have checked to see if gas was squirting through the jets. You checked fuel able to enter the carb - but is it exiting. Just a quick thought. If you have this happening you would be smelling gas easily with the repeated engine cranking.

I tried to look down the carb. It was difficult. The car is so wide I could not get my eyes directly over the carb. I tried taking pictures and video with my phone, and using a mirror to look down in there. From what I could see it didn’t look wet in there. When I took the carb off, the intake manifold looked dry too. There was some gas smell to the carb because the float bowls are full. But I didn’t see evidence of gas saturation down in the intake manifold or on the tops of the venturi valves.

 

[MoparGuy68]

I installed the new carburetor yesterday. Was surprised to see that the carburetor came with 3/8” inch fuel input fittings. Wasn’t expecting that, so they were too large in diameter for my 5/16” SS fuel line. I had to transfer the fittings from my old carburetor over to the new one.

This was no Uncle Tony swap. I spent the whole day performing the swap. I am meticulously cleaned all deposits off the intake manifold. Removed all traces of old gasket from the top of it. Discarded the existing hold down nuts and lock washers which shouldn’t have been on there. One of them was way too large in diameter for the stud. It’s like somebody just grabbed whatever washer they had handy and threw it on there. It irritates me when I find stuff like that.

I don’t have an inch pound torque wrench so I had to torque by feel. Couldn’t find an inch pound torque wrench yesterday at any of the stores I visited. Supposed to be a very light torque 60 to 80 inch pounds. That’s like slightly more than tightening it with your fingers only.. haha so I was worried about over tightening the damn things. Last time I installed a carburetor and torqued the nuts down like this was in 1992, and I didn’t have a baby inch pound wrench then either.

Bottom line is I got the carburetor completely installed but didn’t attempt a start. I didn’t finish the install until about 10 o’clock at night, and wanted to make certain that I wouldn’t experience another no start, at 10 o’clock at night, when I was tired and my back was hurting.

That Uncle Tony No Start video was way too easy. That was not a real “no start” situation. He got the car running way too quick in less than five minutes. He needs to come try that on my car..

Daisy Duke can rebuild a carburetor while blindfolded in two minutes flat.. I spend the entire day and into the evening doing a carburetor swap..

I think my car would gladly start for Catherine Bach. She could just come over here and look at it. It would start up, and run like it did in October 1970.

 

[mopar 3 B]

Sure as heck will not be paying you by the hour.

 

[Ron H]

I haven't used a torque wrench on a carb for - can't recall when. Doesn't need any aggressive torque down. I've used a short length open or box end wrench going around the base cross corner getting them tight without much force, just tight, then check to be sure it's kept its square set then maybe another 1/2 turn. After some motor running time, might see they need to be given a little re-tightening...about it from my experience.

 

[Ernie ingling]

Does the rotor spin when engine cranked?

 

[MoparGuy68]

Super Duper Bee lives again! It was the carburetor!! I installed the new carburetor last Sunday, but didn’t attempt a start (too tired and was dark outside).

Today I filled the primary float bowl, using an Uncle Tony approved squirt bottle, through the vent tube. Pushed the pedal to the floor once, released it, then cranked the engine one time. She fired right up with authority!!

Had to adjust the curb idle, as it was too low out of the box. Then went for a ride in the Super Duper Bee!

Must be some serious blockage in the old carburetor, probably internally in the primary metering block.. Maybe I’ll dissect the old carburetor to try to figure out where the blockage is.

 

[Bee1971]

Awesome !

Nice to hear a positive resolution to a post

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Nice!