Good news! The Cortez finally started today after a few tweaks - had to reset the dizzy for TDC based on the balancer marking, which quickly revealed why I never stood a chance before. The rotor was at 6 o'clock so clearly needed to be re-aligned. Put in all new plugs gapped to .045 and she fired right up! Of course that's a bit of a lie as I tried a few times before realizing that the dizzy signal hadn't been reconnected ; ) I should have recorded it running as it was sounding pretty good!

I also removed the relay from the HEI circuit to rule that out as a possible source of my "no kill" situation, but that doesn't seem to be the issue. The only way I could stop the engine is by pulling the ignition power to the relay. I've taken a photo of the starter wiring to see if anyone can see where I'm going wrong - please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Click her for image or

I've ordered a basic timing gun to get that all set and will mess around with the carb as it was clearly running very rich before. Anyone know how to set up a Carter YH single barrel? I'll also need to sort out the heating signal as either the unit is dead or my dial is dead - will need to test and see. Getting closer every day thanks to this forum!

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1966 Clark Cortez Motorhome w/
Industrial Slant 6 looking for adventure!

Image shows source of power for HEI module at the solenoid (as you pointed out).

It does not show a fuse at that location so it's hopeful the fuse is slightly out of sight.

More importantly however is where that line s connected to the HEI relay.

If you refer to the Annotated wiring diagram in the "HEI Electronic Ignition Retrofit How-To" note that AR294 Relay has several terminals (30, 85, 86, and 87).

Terminal 30 (the red colored line) is the one that must receive fused power from the battery (or starter relay in your case)

If power came to terminal 86 (the green colored line) all the time (it was not switched) then the relay would power up the HEI constantly.

So your experiment might have been to disconnect the green colored line and see if the HEI shut down. If so then you would suspect the ignition switch is not properly turning the relay on and off properly.

If the fused power line was hooked to the yellow line or terminal 87 somehow then the HEI would be powered all the time and essentially your vehicle would just continue to run.

So your mission would be to follow those lines and determine power at the connections if you wanted the protection that the relay circuit would offer in your vehicle as well as improved voltage to the coil.

Glad you were able to verify and adjust the distributor rotor position to match the needs of your slants crank/piston/valve positions. Your efforts paid off. If your are looking into a timing light consider an inductance unit that does not require you to disconnect number one plug wire to operate.....fooling with wires can introduce problems and you can do without making them yourself .....let the engine introduce it's own problems!!!!

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1965 Dart 110k, 225, Carter BBD Super Six, 2 1/4 single exh., sbp manual scarebird front disc, 7 1/4 rear 2.94 sure grip, 14 x 4.5 OEM wheels, 833 OD with hyd. throwout bearing, HEI, electric fan, ram air/heated air, Accusump. http://plymouthcarclub.com/

DonPal - I think you nailed down exactly what my problem is. That green line from the solenoid was assumed to be my ignition power and not my constant. My relay's #30 is actually connected to the battery (with fuse), so lit looks like I have two sources of constant 12V connected at the same time. I guess I assumed the green line was 'ignition switch only' power based on the old wiring, but I'll have to take another look. I may send another photo of the wiring where the HEI lives (passenger footwell) to get your input.

PS - Inductive gun is ordered and on the way!

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1966 Clark Cortez Motorhome w/
Industrial Slant 6 looking for adventure!

Success! Car starts, runs, and best of all stops! Best of all? So that gets the wiring sorted out. Set timing to 6 degrees advance but still need to check total advance and adjust the carb. Found cylinders 2 & 6 not firing well by using the timing gun trick - could hear it as well but the gun confirmed which cylinders were off. Ordered new wires and will replace tomorrow. Also installed the electric choke unit but need to run power to it etc.

My issue now is the ignition coil - it doesn't seem to always generate a spark as the engine turns over. When I first fired it up it took several revolutions before it started, and even then I'm pretty sure it was because releasing the key discharged the coil. On every start up after that (about 5-6), it seemed that releasing the key was what initiated the spark. But if the car runs after the fact, it must be generating a consistent spark, no? Then why not on startup?

The only other items I can think of are either the ignition switch or the distributor module/hall sensor - any thoughts on which to tackle first and how?

FYI - I don't think the bad cylinders and the inconsistent spark are related as cylinders 2 & 6 were consistently off. If the coil was not firing consistently, I would expect random cylinders to misfire which was not the case.

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1966 Clark Cortez Motorhome w/
Industrial Slant 6 looking for adventure!

If it's hard to get it fired when key is in the "start" position (ie turning starter) but seems to catch when in the key is in the "run" position then checking out the voltage available to the coil during the start position is a first step. If you determine the voltage is low possibly caused by a high resistance in that circuit try isolating the ignition switch and see if the resistance is high there. Bad contacts in the ignition key sometimes surface. HEI circuits should have no ballast resistor in the circuit so a full 12 volts or more in both the start and run position should be the measurement you want to see.

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1965 Dart 110k, 225, Carter BBD Super Six, 2 1/4 single exh., sbp manual scarebird front disc, 7 1/4 rear 2.94 sure grip, 14 x 4.5 OEM wheels, 833 OD with hyd. throwout bearing, HEI, electric fan, ram air/heated air, Accusump. http://plymouthcarclub.com/

DonPal - I managed to get the truck running again today but only after a lot of effort. Here are my findings:

No spark at coil, but the coil's resistance in both primary and secondary seem spot on. As mentioned earlier, coil only sparks on the release of the key from ignition to run position. Checked the voltage on 2 different circuits that I could use for ignition - one from the starter solenoid (as the original wiring diagram outlines), and one from the ignition switch circuit (a bit of a mystery as the wiring diagram I have doesn't show this wire connecting to anything, but it does have 12v in the run position only so is a viable source). However, both sources drop way off when trying to start so this could point to another problem.

I then checked the ignition switch and all circuits have very low resistance and continuity as expected. But testing the starter solenoid I found about 16 ohms resistance on the S terminal. I also found the voltage on the S terminal was .5v lower than the battery voltage, and lower still on the output terminal. Time to replace?

Despite all this, I checked the coil again for spark and still only got spark on the release of the key.

Once again I was able to get the engine running by spraying starter fluid into the intake while cranking the ignition, which of course only actually started once I released the key. From then on the engine ran fine - after 10 minutes I killed it and after adjusting a few things was able to fire it up again without the need for any starter fluid. To my novice brain this seems like a cold start problem that points to the carb, but I could be way off. Also, is it possible that the velocity of the starter/battery is too low to trigger the dizzy hall sensor? Afterall, once I get the engine running it runs fine, meaning continual spark is present. Or could this be a hall sensor gap issue?

So it looks like I have 3 possible problems to solve! #1 - no spark at the coil, and #2 - a fuel problem with the carb. #3 - a bad starter solenoid. Thoughts?

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1966 Clark Cortez Motorhome w/
Industrial Slant 6 looking for adventure!

Suggest you try a jumper from battery to primary coil for the start and see if it starts promptly

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1965 Dart 110k, 225, Carter BBD Super Six, 2 1/4 single exh., sbp manual scarebird front disc, 7 1/4 rear 2.94 sure grip, 14 x 4.5 OEM wheels, 833 OD with hyd. throwout bearing, HEI, electric fan, ram air/heated air, Accusump. http://plymouthcarclub.com/

Here is a photo of my coil and module - when you say jump from the battery to the primary, are you saying power the "B" from the battery? If so, this is what I tried tonight but with no success. I connected the line "to ignition power" directly to my battery and gave it a crank. Just turned over and over without catching a spark.

or click here

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1966 Clark Cortez Motorhome w/
Industrial Slant 6 looking for adventure!

For HEI relay setup terminal 87 supplies power to the pink line of the Coil connector.

Since your mission is to decide whether your ignition circuit is causing the problem...... bypass it entirely by bringing power from the battery to the pink line of the coil connector. If the car starts promptly when battery to pink is connected then your off to tracking down an ignition circuit issue. If it doesn't then anything is possible.

The thing is your ignition circuit or HEI relay are being bypassed so they cannot be hooked up to that pink coil wire (in case of a short in the ignition circuit) while the battery direct to coil jumper is used.

Image has coil wire blocking view of the 4 wire plug into the coil so you need to compare your coil wire hookup to the wiring diagram. At the very least the loose/open tach wire connection should be capped.

Note that when you did get it started you noted #6 and #2 had a weak to no spark at the plug. Your firing order is 1,5,3,6,2,4 so it's adjacent plugs in the firing order which if not firing will cause it harder to get started. Pull the distributor cap and look for evidence of severe arcing between the rotor tip and those Cap terminals.

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1965 Dart 110k, 225, Carter BBD Super Six, 2 1/4 single exh., sbp manual scarebird front disc, 7 1/4 rear 2.94 sure grip, 14 x 4.5 OEM wheels, 833 OD with hyd. throwout bearing, HEI, electric fan, ram air/heated air, Accusump. http://plymouthcarclub.com/

I thought 87 supplied power to the pink line as well as the "B" terminal of the module? This is how I have it wired at the moment.
Don't I need to run power to the "B" terminal of the module as well? In my test, I disconnected the line running to #87 and connected it directly to the battery. Are you saying to connect the pink line to the battery and ignore the "B" terminal?
My setup uses the recommended 2 pin/3 wire connector - pink for power, green for "C" on module and tach (which I'll cap as you suggest). Is this correct?

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1966 Clark Cortez Motorhome w/
Industrial Slant 6 looking for adventure!

Not familiar with 3 wire coil connector arrangement so someone with a working system using 3 wire connector needs to jump in.

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1965 Dart 110k, 225, Carter BBD Super Six, 2 1/4 single exh., sbp manual scarebird front disc, 7 1/4 rear 2.94 sure grip, 14 x 4.5 OEM wheels, 833 OD with hyd. throwout bearing, HEI, electric fan, ram air/heated air, Accusump. http://plymouthcarclub.com/

Think I got it sorted! Appears to have been the starter solenoid all along - got the plugs back in and the valve cover back on and tried to start it. Turned over and sputtered (which is always promising) but would never catch. In checking for spark I was jumping the solenoid terminals since I was working solo and was the only way I could turn the engine over by myself. What do you know! The thing almost started!!! Put the coil lead back together and sat down in the driver's seat. Grabbed my screwdriver, jumped the solenoid and voila! I'll be ordering the part tomorrow and installing this weekend - just when you want to put your rust bucket on Craigslist, the magic happens ; )

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1966 Clark Cortez Motorhome w/
Industrial Slant 6 looking for adventure!

So the Summary is???:
1) Relay ignition activation circuit needed to be rewired
2) Solenoid defective

Two electrical problems at once can be challenging.

This last jumping bit is because the ignition switch key arrangement isn't working also?

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1965 Dart 110k, 225, Carter BBD Super Six, 2 1/4 single exh., sbp manual scarebird front disc, 7 1/4 rear 2.94 sure grip, 14 x 4.5 OEM wheels, 833 OD with hyd. throwout bearing, HEI, electric fan, ram air/heated air, Accusump. http://plymouthcarclub.com/

@DonPal - to be honest I feel like I've lost track of everything I've done! Could be a happy accident or a lucky Fonzie move ; )

After installing the new solenoid I was still dead in the water - turns out it was the resistor in the circuit that was failing. There was some confusion with regards to this specific resistor as there is a secondary one closer to the battery that I assumed was the one to bypass. Turns out I was wrong - put the old solenoid back, jumped the 1st resistor and voila! Only thing I can think of is that the resistor was gradually failing during my tests, which made it hard to diagnose since early tests showed it was fine, but yesterday it was off the charts! A simple bypass and the engine fired right up!!!

Patience...

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1966 Clark Cortez Motorhome w/
Industrial Slant 6 looking for adventure!

I completed my HEI upgrade on Friday and I was relieved to see that it started immediately. Thank you to all who have contributed here on the SS forum with your advice and experiences.

I was originally going to use the 3-pin HEI e-core coil but I couldn't find the correct coil terminal so I'm still using my Accel Super Coil for now. I'm powering the ignition and fuel pump with relays that I got from SS Dan. I highly recommend that you get your relays from him. See Daniel Stern Lighting.

I did a write-up about what I learned and my experience with the upgrade: Mopar HEI Ignition Upgrade

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1965 Plymouth Barracuda,
225 engine, Quadrajet, HEI, Dutra Duals, 904 Torqueflite, 2.76:1 axle, Addco front bar
Rods & Relics - Fort Erie, ON / Collector Car Tech