first jump your battery for a little while to get some juice in there or borrow a good battery from another 'idle car' (your parents won't like you if you borrow theirs...)
Some tests that you can do with a buddy:
pull a plug wire from a plug and hold it (on the insulation) a 1/4" from a ground (engine block, alt housing, NOT the fuel filter or carb...) while cranking you should see a spark, if not (make sure your cap and rotor are clean on the contact points)you can try these tests:
with cars with the 5 pin EI from Mopar you should hook a test light from the negative side of the coil to a good ground turn the key 'on' but do not crank, jiggle key a bit too (have a friend help).
1) light blinks- ignition switch has a faulty connection-replace
2)light is solid and 'on': check ballast resistor
3)no light -chack all connections to make sure some wire isn't loose on the coil/ignition module/ballast resistor/forgot to turn the key 'on', also check wiring to 'cavity 2'(top one/middle) on the ignition module.
An 'ohmeter' can narrow things down after that. Make sure ignition is off.
An ohmeter across the coil terminals should give you a reading of 1-2 ohms according to some sources (someone might have a more specific number).
pull the connection from the distributor and put the leads into the 'socket'
on the distributor and you should have 150-900 ohms. If open the pickup coil is bad.
Plug the distributor lead back into the main circuit, put your test leads on cavity 4 & 5 (in the round part of the plug closest to the metal heatsink with the 'bump in the middle')on the control module connector you should have 150-900 ohms if the pickup is good. If nothing/high resistance, check your connections.
Leave one lead on the #5 cavity and put the other on a good ground, you should have some sign of continuity. If not pull the module and clean up the mounting parts (bolts and metal ears on module) and reinstall, check again if you have an open circuit the ignition module will need to be replaced.
A volt meter can test the various circuits in the ignition system, but your battery will have to be charged to 12 volts minimum on the chrysler EI system to get a good result.
Test the battery to see how many volts are registering:
All of these tests should determine which components might be bad in their EI circuits-when testing the circuit you should not have more than a 1 volt drop at the cavity point.
Cavity 1(point of the 5 pins): Ignition switch and ballast resistor
Cavity 2 (up and clockwise from #1): Ignition switch, Bottom of ballast resistor (primary), and coil
Cavity 3(clockwise from cavity 2): Both sides of Ballast resistor
If you have a 4 pin controller (most of the new replacements are this type) pin#3 should be missing and disregard that step (it's used to limit power to the coil at low RPM and keep it from
or you can replace all your ignition components (about $67 at autozone).
Commonly the Ballast Resistor and EI Controller go bad, if your coil is a few years old it might be time to replace it too(if in the stock location you'll have to remove the alternator to get at it...)
If that doesn't cure it: you'll be back to testing and checking wires anyway.
Currently doing this proceedure with my '74 so far the EI box (OEM original on the car, the ballast resistor and the coil all failed at the same time...I suspect something else might not be right with my ignition system...)
-D.Idiot
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