[daytona701]

My 1966 Polara died on side of road last Friday and had to be trailered home. After installing new #4 ground from engine to chassis, #8 plug wire, fuel filter and charge the battery the car will start and run well until it starts to warm up and then die. I replaced the ecm with a spare and got the same results. The ballast resistor is showing about 12 volts in and 9 out when the ignition is off and 13.5 in and 12 out with the car running. The engine sounds strong when fast idling but dies. Can anyone point me in the right direction. Thank You, Bruce.

 

[KOG]

What kind of electronic ignition do you have? It wasn't stock on a 66.

 

[dana44]

Definitely the symptom of a bad hall effect in the distributor, if it is a Mopar style electronic ignition, starts and runs, then shuts down when warm (between 15 and 25 minutes of driving usually), not a difficult fix, but do not use a metal feeler gauge to set the space between the hall effect and the star reluctor (don't really know why, but everyone says so).

 

[stroudtom]

Use a brass feeler gauge and set to .008-10 if I remember right.

 

[dana44]

Yes, but what I am saying is, will the hall effect short out or ground, causing it to burn out, if a steel feeler gauge is used? Using brass compared to steel feeler gauge doesn't change the conductivity or continuity , both being metal, so that doesn't make sense.

 

[KOG]

It's magnetism you're concerned about, that's why you use brass. There's no electricity involved. If the distributor shaft is worn ( and it will be) you'll want to sort of average out the flop when you set the gap.

 

[dana44]

Magnetism. Thanks.

 

[Bob Lincoln]

My 1966 Polara died on side of road last Friday and had to be trailered home. After installing new #4 ground from engine to chassis, #8 plug wire, fuel filter and charge the battery the car will start and run well until it starts to warm up and then die. I replaced the ecm with a spare and got the same results. The ballast resistor is showing about 12 volts in and 9 out when the ignition is off and 13.5 in and 12 out with the car running. The engine sounds strong when fast idling but dies. Can anyone point me in the right direction. Thank You, Bruce.

The ballast resistor is supposed to reduce the voltage to the coil with engine running. I suspect you have the connections backwards on the downstream side of the resistor. Should be about 9V to the coil with engine running. It only should see full voltage when cranking. And there should be no voltage to the resistor with ignition off.