My pickup, 390, tri power. Mallory Uni-Lite and matching coil,8mm pro wires. Has run trouble free 107K (this time). Acts like a bad ign switch (but I just changed that). Will start fine, but will quit, just like turning off the key, sometimes rite away, sometimes running for a while or all day long. New battery ,good cables, Ron Francis Wireing kit. Has me baffled. Any ideas?????????.....OLDBEET
will it start right up again? does it have spark and fuel?which does it not have ? bad ignition trigger or module...fatchuk
Gots fuel, I understand when a Malory module goes bad, it will never start again. System has no condenser.....OLDBEET
My '73 Olds 88 had a Mallory Unilite breakerless conversion that started acting up just as you described. It was almost like the module would get warm, then quit. Once it sat for awhile, it worked. I ended up replacing the module and never had another problem with it.
I'm inclined to agree with the thought regarding the ignition. Beg, borrow or steal another ignition system, complete known good distributor if possible, and go from there. Electronic componants often exhibit the type of failure you describe.
Seems to do it when cold? Just started it about 35 times. runs fine now. WTF, thanks guys, if I figure it out I'll let ya know..........OLDBEET
the last mallory that i had would do the same thing. never the same conditions. never knew when it would happen. last time it did on the freeway with my daughter in the truck, got home and threw that pos out. punt in an accel with a magnetic pick-up and have had no problems for the last 8 years. would use a points distributor before i would touch another mallory anything! just my experience. try another igniton system to find out for sure. jerry
This is going to sound silly, but my dad tells a story of this happening to his 47 Chevy p/u when I was about 3 or 4 yrs old. His truck would run fine, then occasionally just stop. Turns out that he found out that I had stuck a sandwich bag thru the gas tank filler nozzle, and it kept getting ****ed up to the fuel pickup in the tank! About 2 weeks ago, I caught my own 3 yr old son about to do the same thing to my car! I doubt this is your problem, since you said it just quits as if you turned the key off, as I would think it would act more like it's running out of gas in this sceneario. But it's afunny story when you hear my dad tell it. (Wasn't so funny years ago!)
hook up a bell, whistle and horn to each electrical device in the ignition circuit, when one of the noises stops you'll know which part to replace. Paul
[ QUOTE ] This is going to sound silly, but my dad tells a story of this happening to his 47 Chevy p/u when I was about 3 or 4 yrs old. His truck would run fine, then occasionally just stop. Turns out that he found out that I had stuck a sandwich bag thru the gas tank filler nozzle, and it kept getting ****ed up to the fuel pickup in the tank! About 2 weeks ago, I caught my own 3 yr old son about to do the same thing to my car! I doubt this is your problem, since you said it just quits as if you turned the key off, as I would think it would act more like it's running out of gas in this sceneario. But it's afunny story when you hear my dad tell it. (Wasn't so funny years ago!) [/ QUOTE ] I had the same problem with a '69 Datsun roadster I used to have. The guy before me had lost his gas cap and stuffed some paper towels in the filler hole as a temporary measure. It took me awhile to figure out what was happening, but I eventually pulled the gas tank and had it boiled out at the local radiator shop. Worked fine after that...
My '54 Buick did the same thing. Here were the problems (in no particular order) Old fuel lines, with the finest tal*** powder-like rust you've ever seen. Plugged mechanical fuel pump. Fuel pump diaphram died--if the engine created enough "****" it would pull fuel through the line. Sometimes it did, sometimes--like at a stop light--it wouldn't. Silicone gasket goup in the fuel tank wadding up and plugging the new in-line fuel pump. All these exibited "out of gas" symptoms. Trash in the carb--it'd just lodge in the needle and cut fuel instantly. Another possibility is: one of the wires leading to my Pertronix unit broke inside the insulation, inside the distributor. There were no external signs it was damaged. Most times the wire was touching itself at the break and the car would run. Sometimes, not often, the wire would move and the connection would be broken, and then it was like the switch got turned off. What a mutherphuker to figure out! That may or may not help. Good luck -Brad
Hey, come to think of it, I once met a guy with a 390 Tri-power set up on his car, and he said he was having troubles with it dying, and another guy told him to take the fuel distribution block to the carbs (I think it's a metal tube with three ports coming off it to the carbs?) and hone it out. I don't remember what he used to hone it out (brake cylinder hone, maybe?), but he said that took care of his problem. Said it baffled him almost to the point of getting rid of the system. That block is down-stream of the fuel filter, right? So any fuel flowing through that block is unfiltered between the block and the carbs. If there's trash or rust in that block, then it could be plugging up your carb. All it has to do is plug the middle "drive around town" carb and there's no fuel unless you open up the outboards, right? -Brad
Old Beet, I had avery similar problem to the one your having . I have a 383" in my '63 Dodge and it would run fine for weeks until all of a sudden it would just shut off. It seemed to be fuel related but I was flummoxed as, at times, the problem seemed to be something ignition related. Well, two years ago while attending the Indy GG's show the SOB did it to me again. I replaced the mechanical fuel pump on the side of the road with a new one and it started right up. Ahhhhh, sats I it's fixed and I can have a good time. WRONG! My wife drove the car the next day as I went to the track early with a friend in his Willys. And, of course, the POS shut off just as my wife was entering the show. Well, I replaced the damn mechanical with a very expensive electic pump and thins seemed to be okay. Until I got back home and it happened again months later. This time I replaced almost all the the ignition parts. I have an electronic ignition and didn't replace the ECM as it cost $75 from Mopar. I did ask a mechanic friend and he told me to just buy a $15 unit for your garden variety Mopar as it is essentilly the same. I did and the problem went away. However, as an aside to the story, last year I had the engine rebuilt and found that the original fuel pump pushrod had been worn down by almost 1/4"! So, the problem all went back to the bad puhrod which would at various times just fail to pump gas. And, that was combined with a bad ECM which would periodically fail. A really disconcerting combination of two things going wrong almost simultaneously Bad, very bad luck for me. So, make sure to check EVERYTHING out. Don't ***ume anything.
Old Beet, if this is your daily driver, by all means ditch that Mallory Unilite ASAP and get an HEI or MSD dizzy. I had the EXACT same thing happen to my 350 Chevy (Posted all the info on this board a while back ) after I'd had the UNILITE for 9-10 years. Mind you it was fantastic prior to any of this, but when they go, they generally will just die like that without warning. Don't even waster your time with a new module. I bought one from Summit and it still didn't start. $100 down the drain. I was so mad. Mallory has an excellent track record but those unlites are just not worth it. Good luck man.
this reminds me of a discussion two of my friends had a while ago, one of my buddies was talking about how he hates the unilites because he has had similar problems your describing. my other buddy said "i have had one in my T since i got it running and never had a problem". Next day the unilite went out on that model T. i thought that was hilarious...
HEI will wear the ****on between the module and the rotor causing exactly the same thing. It'll spark and work like a set of points till the gap gets too big then suddenly quit. I've seen coil wires on a normal dizzy burn back on an electronic ignition till it won't jump the gap anymore too. No way to see it till you pull the end off the wire.
i'v e had good luck with the pertronix units. i've replaced serveral mallorys with the same problems.
I would get a cheap (or expensive) voltmeter. And measure if there was any voltage present at the dizzy when it dies. 1: If not check if there was any voltage present at the ingition switch, and so on going towards the battery to find the problem. A basic test is to check all connections, and grounding, a visual inspection is good, if it looks tatty it will probably give you trouble. 2: If its present then the problem is within the distributor, to check electronics for heat problem you can use a heat gun to heat up your dizzy, at your driveway. Solid state stuff can be voltage sensitive. Some cooling spray is nice to ghave for trouble shooting to.
That's a pain, but it reminds me of a very funny story. My buddy had some kind of off brand electronic conversion distributor in his 41 Chevy and it used to cut out, but restart without any warning causing a huge backfire. One day we p***ed a local cop who had pulled someone over to write him up for speed'n and sure enough this thing cuts out and causes the biggest backfire I ever heard right beside the cop. The guy musta **** his pants, 'course we're laff'n our ***es off til we got back to his place and looked at his mufflers - looked like a couple of basketballs!
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