dodge 440

78custom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2005
Location
wilmington
i have a 1975 dodge sportsman camper. it has a 440 with a 2 barrel carb. the problem is when you put it in drive it just chokes off. it acts like it is dumping fuel in the carb. i have put a different carb off of a good running truck and it is still doing it . any help would be great.
 
check the time
 
Electroinc ignition or points ?
 
If it's NOT equipped with electronic ignition, there'll be a rectangular ceramic block about 3 inches by 1/2 by 1/2 or so with two wires attached, and located on a fenderwell or the firewall. That'll be the ballast resistor for the ignition. When ya go inspecting it, be careful, they get hot as hell with current applied - that's why they're ceramic. And don't lose the insulator gizmo if it comes off - that's what insulates it and makes the thing stay in the bracket on some. And check the wiring and connectors for deterioration because the heat makes for bad connections and crumbly insulation that'll give the same sorta symptoms.

Anyway, when these things go south, the symptoms perfectly mimic fuel/carb problems. I gained this valuable info after putting two 4 bbl carbs on a 72 Plymouth 440 in one afternoon once upon a time because it would only idle and wouldn't take any fuel, only to have a drunk neighbor toss me one out of his damn pocket, no less, and instruct me to install it. I thought he was drunk, and stoopid to boot. I was right about the drunk, I was wrong about the stoopid. Thing fired right up and ran like it oughta, and I've witnessed the phenomenon many times since. Said he kept one handy 'cuz they have a habit of puking. He drove a '73 Goat pickup with a 440 6 Pack, BTW.
 
changed out the resistor and checked the timing. now it will crank and run until you give it gas , then it chokes off and wont crank. help!!!!!
 
Check your vacuum hoses, possibly your vac. advance isn't getting vacuum or is sticking.. Have you tried holding the choke butterfly open. Could be the choke slapping shut on you.
 
OK, one more try to post before this thing kicks me off again. 3 tries so far.

Is the coil good or weak? Is the coil ground good? Wires, cap, rotor, plugs, points, dwell, or does it have an electronic pickup instead of points, and if so, is it good? What's the voltage on each side of the resistor? Output should be about 9 volts or so, IIRC, and the input should be system voltage. Lots of possibilities.

Opening the throttle adds fuel and air (no sh1t) which has the effect of increasing the resistance across the potential spark path and cooling the mixture conditions in the combustion chamber. All this tends to put the fire out if there's some factor in the ignition system which prevents it from having the overhead to accommodate the increased resistance and decreased temps.

You should be able to observe the gas flow in the carb if you've got the top of the carb exposed. Thing to remember here is that there is always the possibility of more than one source of poor running. Gotta eliminate the causes one at a time......
 
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