Re: [Chrysler300] "C". Belching & Fa#*x√g !!

Perhaps I should give a little background on the Swiss C. The day I drove to restoration shop ( big mistake) the C had all 375 horse's under the hood.

Fast forward 14 years and more $$$ down the old rat hole and still no sign of the missing ponies.

Then when I thought all was lost, found a youngish wrench/ builder/good guy that listened to my very long tales of woe.

We decided to have cam reground, new lifters, corrected the sprocket mark issue, rebuilt the carbs and pulled distributor. When checked the Pertronix unit was dropping 3 cylinders at 3000 rpm.

Made decision to put back to dual points set up. Watched while the distributor was switched back to dual points. The unit was tested, dwell set, etc.

Back on the car and Hoochchee Mama! All the Horses were back, and maybe a few extra.

At this writing, had another shop check and they found points closed (??). The U adjusted and no improvement.

The car will start after belching and farting (pardon my French), run rough. Upon several attempts, will start without the bad behavior and run great.

My thought was to change coil and ballast resistor (not so sure after your comments).

Planning on going back to the first shop and let them sort out ( hoping they can).

Hi Gary, you may know a lot of this , but here goes ! Many do not understand these dual points .. Including me , way back . Can drive you crazy. Check for damaged "flex"wiring inside distributor , ( it can break intermittantly under / inside the rubber -- pull on it ! -- and check with low range ohmmeter) . But most likely just not adjusted right . Did you use dwellmeter ? 2nd set closes right after first opens at the spark instant . Unbelieveably critical to get it perfect/ right -- especially down in the hole in back under heater . @@$$"""as you say . I cannot do it in car anymore . . If 2nd set closes too soon , it misfires . Or same thing , first spark set opens , but the second still semi closed . And everything in between . Once set up right , really good , quite stable . I think just as good as any pertronics , and it wont just die suddenly . Probably ok for 20-30 k miles at least . Sometimes process of tightening clamp set screw down causes it to change after setting up carefully . ( Dwell meter will still show anything wrong, after you are all done) --cheap on ebay , as cannot use w electronic ignitions . Due to many tolerances wear etc , i would only trust dwell meter , ---that also ensures hot spark at higher rpm.. With right dwell. If not right dwell , ( too much or too little overlap) it will also break down at hi rpm even if runs ok at low / med rpm . The whole reason for two sets is to up dwell time to charge coil up fully for hi rpm , between successive sparks . That longer current on time (dwell) gives the coil more time to store up spark energy in the coil magnetic field for full power for next up coming spark . ( EE hat on) So they close circuit again as fast as they can after a spark ( 2nd set closes , they do not wait a lot longer for a single set to go ever the hump and then close again ( like GM!) . Note that both sets open and close per each spark , 8 lobes . Not 4 cyl per points set ( some Mallory did that , 4 lobes ) . Great design really but matchbook cover setting wont cut it. If mechanically perfect setup , ( gap) it should work but dwell meter tells you it is working . A Coil failure cannot ( generally ) do what you are seeing . It dies , might come and go , but dies . A Bad capacitor can reduce spark , cause hard start and very poor running . . A lot of the new capacitors with stamped lines or crunched marks on the plain end of can are flat out junk . They crunch in that end to make crude "touches only " contact with inner wound aluminum foil, it gets intermittant .I took one apart and found all burn and electrical corrosion marks where it had been arcing in there . That --after chasing intermittant ignition performance hassles for several years . ( capacitor is brand new --it cannot be bad !-- changed everything else a few times!! ) Find your old one , test with ohm meter put back in! Spark should be hot and strong .. Jump like 3/8 + in air .

To test capacitor , put analog ohmmeter on high ohms ( megohms ) touch the leads to cap can and wire . Needle should swing up a ways and go back to infinite ohms, or 10 megohms + . Reverse leads --it will do it again . ( reverses the stored charge on cap) Cannot do with a digital meter . But an intermittant inside can confound you . No swing = open cap . Swing that stays up =, shorted or leaking cap.

It went 140 mph with no electonics, right ?
Don't join the "i dropped the tiny screw club". I am a member since 1961 . When i tuned up a perfectly running 392 hemi , and could not get it to run at all after . At 18, that is the end of the world. A few times over . The screw then falls under the points plate . Auuugh . Many hours later ---/Get an electrician's small size screw holding screwdriver . Hard to find a short one , the kind that reaches solidly around screw head .. And follow service manual to a T . Before you start be sure points are square and aligned concentrically . You do not want edge only or tilted / off center contact . Cant gap that . Sometimes they need a tweak first . Good luck !

John Grady
Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 28, 2015, at 3:19 PM, Gary Gettleman gary.gettleman@xxxxxxxxx [Chrysler300] <Chrysler300-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

To All,   Have replaced Pertronix with factory dual points.   Car ran great with factory set up. Went to start and backfired and felt like it was only firing on 4??

Re-Replaced the condenser and all was good (I thought). Drove about 10 miles and put away. Went to start next day and back to backfiring and 4 cylinder's!!

Figure I will replace coil. Any other thoughts.

   As Always, All suggestions Greatly Appreciated.

   gary gettleman