We had fun and saved some dough tricking out our salvaged sparker, but if you'd rather just bolt one on ready to go, Mopar Performance offers these gems brand new as conversion kits, including the wiring harness, ballast, and control box, or as individual components at a reasonable cost. Either way, when it comes to Mopar ignition systems, the factory stuff packs a lot of performance.
The engine was cranked around...
The engine was cranked around to 10 degrees BTDC with the rotor pointed to the No. 1 plug wire, then the distributor was unbolted and removed.
Our "new" high-performance...
Our "new" high-performance electronic distributor was bolted in with the rotor facing the same way as the old distributor, and the housing aligned so that the No. 1 terminal location was in line with the rotor, and one of the reluctor tips was in line with the pickup unit.
We got a new electronic ignition...
We got a new electronic ignition wiring harness from Mopar Performance, PN P3690152. While we know guys like Bolig can get intim-idated by wiring, this conversion is really simple. The harness has five wires, and the control unit has only four pins. Cut off the green/red-striped wire, which is the unused wire. That leaves just four wires. Two are used for the plug that hooks to the distributor, so there are really only two wires to worry about. The black/yellow-striped wire goes to the coil (-), and the blue/yellow-striped wire goes to +12v ignition to power up the control unit.
The stock coil was replaced...
The stock coil was replaced with an ACCEL performance piece. The hookup on the (+) side uses the same wire as the old points ignition. For the (-) side, the black/yellow-striped wire from the control unit is used.
The ballast resistor was swapped...
The ballast resistor was swapped to a Mopar Performance P5206436, a companion piece for Mopar's electronic ignition, replacing our 30-year-old stocker (left). It fit in the stock location. The power feed wire for the control unit can be tapped right off the feed (power in) side of the ballast. Typically, the feed side of the ballast has two wires-a brown ignition start wire and a dark blue ignition run wire. We just added the feed wire (blue/yellow-striped) to the control box with a new terminal here.
The rock-hard flea market...
The rock-hard flea market spark-plug wires that were on the car were tossed, and we cut a set of custom ACCEL 8mm SuperStock ignition wires to finish off our ignition upgrades. With a total investment of an afternoon's fun, and precious few bucks, we replaced our feeble points ignition with a hot high-performance ignition that will go years without a second thought.