WOW IS ME!! Got as far as Quincy, Fl. on I-10 when I heard this loud popping noise and everything died. Engine cranked but would not start. Called my Mopar guy to see if maybe it was the electronic ignition I put in. Tried many thing but to no avail. Then a Car Guy stopped to help, with an Ipad and what a blessing. Gonna get me one. We determined the modulator went bad and found one in Quincy. My new friend took me to get one while his wife stayed with yvonne until we got back. Made the swap but nothing, we determined that two wires came loose at the solder joint, so I crimped two new tabs on the wire and that sucker fired right up. Soldering isn’t so good afterall. After 3 hours we got on the road again and I took our new friends to lunch. As we were leaving every time I put the car in drive it stalled. The only way I could get it to keep going was to give it gas and push the drive button at the same time. Once it got a head of steam in would rum smoothly at highway speed but I was in trouble if I got caught at a red light. Made it to our motel in Slidell but can’t drive the car or go to the three day Cursin the Coast. AAA is hauiling the car to Picayene, Ms to have the Tranny Overhauled. I got connected with a tranny shop familiar with pushbutton Torqueflite trannys, he said from what I told him I’m looking at a major rebuild. So we are renting a car to do a few thing around here and hopefully we will be able to drive it home in about a week. At the beginning it drove like a new car. Looks like my dream turne into an expensive nightmare.
Dick.
Opps, should have posted this message under TRIP TO CRUSIN THE COAST.
Dick.
No matter where you post we will find it. But I do hope you can get the transmission fixed for a reasonable price and that you’ll be cruising the coast soon!!
If needed I do have a spare transmission (in the Philadelphia area) that you can have for free. You would need to pick it up or arrange transport yourself though. I was told it was fine when one of our members gave it to me.
Ron
Thanks Ron - Cruzin the coast is done. Our car is already at the shop in Picayune, MS. We rented a car and are going today as spectators. I really appreciate the offer of the transmission and hopefully won’t have to take you up on it but then again with 3 cars with the same transmission maybe I will. The guy that is going to handle it owns B & B Motorsports and he had a booth inside the Coliseum where the Vicare Auction will be held. He had a very nice display and two vehicles to show off his work. He was highly recommended and was very professional. He told me he wasn’t cheap (shudder) but then again a good shop never is. He gave me a signed contract with a guarantee of 30 days or 12,000 mile covering parts and labor. I’ve never seen one of those before.
Dick.
Sorry to hear about the transmission failure. I am curious as to why the transmission failed?
My first car had a TorqueFlite, the A-488 which had a cast iron case, which at the time was the best automatic transmission built Then I bought a used '63 Dodge and it had the A-727 and it used an aluminum case.
Good luck with the repair… as always … time and money. Hope you are ‘on the road again soon’.
That’s a bummer, Dick! At least it sounds like you have found a reputable, knowledgeable shop to perform the work.
Have a good time at the show, even as spectators.
—John
So sorry to hear about your troubles, Dick. Ron’s right, he’s got a TF sitting in the garage, but it sounds like it’s too late to help you. Well; I can’t fix your car, but I can fix your post. If you aren’t too bummed out to post some pix, your Coastal Cruze is now a separate topic.
Dan
Thank Dan - I appreciate the switchover.
Dick
Update! Got the car back yesterday morning. Minor problem with a huge cost. He determined right away the transmission was not the problem. Tried many various thing because the engine would kill every time the drive button was pushed. Then the car would not start when in neutral. Tried a new coil and walla, car started ran smoothly and shifted properly. It’s one of those things where you fix the problem but haven’t the faintest idea how it got fixed. He replaced the coil at a total cost of $470.00, I bought a spare coil to carry with me for $25.00. Its 67 miles from his shop in picayune (a first class facility) to my family’s house in New Orleans and the car ran smooth as silk. There is a Sam’s club about a 1/4 mile from here where the gas is $2.74 / gal. You can bet I filled her up.
As I was about a block away from the house a guy driving a 70’s or 80’s Chevy yells, nice car, there is one just like it at the house I just left about three houses down. I turned down the street and he turned around to show me where it was. The owner was not at home but he took me into the garage and there buried under a ton of stuff was a 1958 Plymouth Belvedere Convertible, all there and hardly any rust at all but stored with the top down. He said they parked it there about two month ago with the engine kinda running (a 318). My phone just rang and it was the owner. He’s not sure he wants to sell it, even at 10K, I told him I’m a player at 10K. Is this a coincidence or what. We missed the car show but at least we will be able to take that leisure cruise home along the gulf.
Dick.
Dick, get that car for $10K That would be a nice addition to your fleet. Get some pictures of it once you buy it! 
John Q.
John - After what this trip cost I don’t know if I could scrape up 10K. The owner of B & B Motor Sport in Picayune, Ms. http://www.b-bmotorsports.com could have told me it was the Transmission and charged me for repair and only replace the coil. Thank God he is an honest man. It pays to deal with a reputable firm. The white car up on the lift is a 1942 Ford, first one I’ve ever seen. Everything in the shop is sparkling clean. The shop is about 8 mile outside of Picayune in the Boonies.
Got home safe and sound last night after covering 2,090 miles in the convertible, that doesn’t include the 250 or so miles in the rental car. Was able to leisurely cruise along the coast on Thursday with the top down from Bay St. Louis, Ms. to Gulf Breeze, Fl. The transmission had a hard time starting in Drive, If I pushed the 2nd. button it would start off fine and after some speed would shift into third gear when I pushed the drive button. Decided there were too many Red Light the way we wanted to go, so got back on I-10 and cruised on home between 65 and 70 MPH, mostly at 70. Once the car was in third gear it ran very, very smoothly the whole way. It was unbelievable the amount of thumbs up, honking horns, and pictures taken the whole time. Every time we stopped for gas people would flock to the car like buzzards and ask a million questions, mainly “Is that a 1957” one lady got it right and asked if it was a 59.
As I said before I installed Electronic Ignition in the car. Doing so resulted in an average of 17.46 MPG for the 2,006 miles. Out of 10 fill ups the worst were 14.90, 15.69 and 15.89, don’t ask me why. The best were 17.41, 18.02, 20.86, 18.06, 18.19, 19.98 and 17.38. You can bet my other cars are going to get Chrysler electronic ignition, not Petronix. My engine has a two barrel carburetor and they say a four barrel carburetor gets better millage because the two mains are smaller than the two barrel mains. Got this good mileage while towing a trailer with a total weight of at least 800 lbs.
The following is a list of parts you will need to convert a 318 CI engine. I got repair shop prices from PEPBOYS.
1 - Cardone Reman Distributor 30-3890 $37.83 Core charge $12.00
1 - D147P Rotor 6.26
1- C191P Cap 12.53
1 - Auto Zone DR100 Control Module 23.00 approx.
1- Auto Zone C819 Coil 25.00 approx.
Do not use the Chrysler Module they tend to overheat and fail. Fabricate a 1/4" thick aluminum heat sink and attach it to the DR100 control Module using the heat sink grease that comes with the module. I cut the guts out of an old regulator and mounted the modulator inside so make sure the aluminum piece fits, it acts as additional heat sink and no one can tell you have electronic ignition it looks stock. with this system you can eliminate the coil resistor, just tie the two wires together. Bigger hotter spark so set the spark plug gap at .44 . Set the advance 36 degrees at 2,500 rpm and you can eliminate the vacuum advance on the distributor.
A few pictures are attached.
Dick.
ON THE WAY TO MISSISSIPPI AT A REST STOP.
BARRY BARONE - OWNER OF B & B MOTORSPORTS STANDING IN THE PAINT BOOTH, BIG ENOUGH TO DO CAR AND ALL COMPONENTS AT SAME TIME.
1942 FORD COUPE.
1942 FORD COUPE.
VROOOMM, VROOOMM.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
ENTRANCE TO FACILITY.
MAIN BUILDING.
ON THE WAY HOME ON HWY 90 IN MISSISSIPPI , GULF OF MEXICO IN THE BACKGROUND.
DITTO.
MORE DITTO.
FLORIDA WELCOME CENTER ON I-10 AT EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE. SUN IS HIDING BEHIND JET AIRPLANE, NEAT PICTURE HUH!
ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTOR FROM 1973 - 340 ENGINE. LOOKS STANDARD.
ELECTRONIC MODULATOR HIDING IN GUTTED REGULATOR. LOOKS STANDARD.
Dick, adopt me!!! Loved the pix - you are truly one amazing dude, Dude.
Dan
Thanks Dan - Yea, I hear that a lot. (line from a commercial). I’ll have to show that statement to Yvonne. How about you, are you doing better and able to get out and about?
Dick.
CORRECTION - THE SPARK PLUG GAP NEEDS TO BE SET AT .35 NOT .44.
Dick.
After all the trouble we had on our trip when I got home I started reading up on what the probable causes of the transmission shifting problems might be. I got out my manuals and started reading the causes which were many. I settled on adjusting the bands on the transmission and the throttle kick down linkage. The other stuff was to complicated for this pea brain. I went to Harbor Freight and purchased a Inch pound torque wrench to set the bands with. I followed the instruction to the letter and don’t you know, problems solved, unless they are not, but for right now the car starts off in drive, is shifting properly and the kick down is working. It never worked before. I thought I had made all those adjustment but apparently I didn’t do a very good job. I didn’t realize the importance of having the gas pedal, carburetor and transmission kick down linkage adjusted properly. It has to be right on the money. Lets hope it holds up. but for now the car runs, shifts and drives the best of them all. Learned a lot on this trip.
Dick.
O.K. let me back up and get things explained better and straightened out. The electronic ignition system I used, recommended by a local MOPAR guru consists of a electronic distributor from a 1973 - 340 CI engine. This setup is for the 318 CI engine. Do not use the MOPAR modulator it is 12 volt start and 6 volt run and tends to fail if overheats. Use a GM modulator Auto Zone # DR100 or NAPA TP45SE. It is 12 volt start and 12 volt run and provides a hotter spark, you can even open your spark plugs to .40 I let mine stay at .35. Delete the ballast resistor and tie the wires together. Also, do not use the standard oil filled coil, they are designed for 12 volt start and 6 volt run and will overheat and possily explode. I was quite lucky on my trip back to Florida as I had a standard coil. The coil to use is a MSD HIGH VIBRATION BLACK COIL because it is epoxy filled and designed to lay flat. The MSD RED coil is oil filled and designed to be mounted upright (do not use). When timing the engine set the timing light at 36 degrees and the engine at 2500 rpm. Set you distributor when the timing mark is on zero. Then you can eliminate the vacuum advance hose. Switching to this system gave me 3 to 3-1/2 more miles per gallon.
For a 361 or 383 CI engine the Distributor should be from a 1973 Dodge Charger 5.6 L, 400CI, V8 engine. $49.79
RockAuto Part No. 303897 (30-3897) Cardone Distributor and 3D1072A Dist. Cap and rotor. $12.00
Everything else is the same.
If you remember on my trip I mentioned the car would stop running whenever I came to a stop but would start up and go if I gave it gas at the same time, the car always ran fine at speed. This problem plagued me the whole trip even after we fixed the problem of the coil. I tried many things to try and correct it including spark plugs and wires, rebuilding the carburetor and re-timing the engine even up until yesterday. I brought the car to the MOPAR Guru and after much trying this and trying that we determined the wires from the modulator to the distributor and coil were too small and too long. We did that because I wanted to retain the look of the Regulator. My mechanic mounted the modulator inside the regulator housing and ran the wires to the distributor and coil from that point. Because the wires were to small and long there was a huge voltage drop at idle that would kill the engine even though I had installed a one wire alternator.
I had two options, run heavier #12 wire from the regulator housing or mount the modulator closer to the regulator and coil using #12 wire. I chose the latter, I mounted the modulator with a 3/8" thick aluminum heat sink that can be attached thru the two holes in the Modulator. Then I attached it to the back of the carburetor, that made the #12 wire leads only 8" long. You must have a ground wire from the modulator also. One of the holes in the modulator is setup for a ground. The black part of the modulator has two small round protrusions that need to be cut off. The air cleaner hides the whole setup.
The modulator has four tabs, the tabs on the left are marked W & G, the tabs on the right are marked B & C. Use insulated female tabs.
The distributor comes with a two wire connector, run a red wire from the W tab on modulator to the orange or red wire on the distributor. Run a black wire from G tab on the modulator to the black wire on the distributor. The G tab is smaller than the others.
Run a black wire from the C tab on the modulator to the negative side of the coil.
Run a Red wire from the B tab on the modulator to the positive side of the coil.
I highly recommend you mark the tabs with a sharpie so you know what goes where.
WELL I CAN FINALLY SAY IT. THE CAR RUNS LIKE A DREAM, STOPS AND STARTS LIKE A DREAM AND DOESN’T STALL ANYMORE.
HURRAH,
Dick.
Dick, what an ordeal. Glad you pulled it out of the fire! Send some pix, please!
Dan
