When I first bought my 1973 Dodge Polara Custom Spring Special, I was aware it had the Mopar electronic ignition. However, my Fords all have a 12V Pertronix system installed and I like how it runs. Little did I know the adventure I was in for both with the ignition and the Holley 2bbl carburetor.
Having been in hibernation the car needed some mechanical work as you could imagine. Right off the bat the 50 mile drive home, for my brother, was a bit dodgy given the very soft nature of the master cylinder. Nonetheless, he being a pro he made it fine. Naturally the master was the first thing replaced. Brakes then gone over. After that all the hoses and basic fluids throughout the engine. New tires were on the menu to replace a mismatched set. Now I could drive the car and noticed that there were issues with the acceleration pump on the stock Holley 2210 carb.
This is the little devil. At the time I didn’t know that many of the rebuilt ones never had the top plate trued to be perfectly flat. It seems that when you tighten down the air cleaner the bolt pulls on the top plate where it anchors. So I had three of these carbs with various problems from accelerator pump issues to erratic vacuum leaks. I got tired of this and wonder why Holley couldn’t make a 2bbl. as reliable as the Autolite 2100. Hey now that is an idea.
So I proceed to move onto the project when I now really notice the bases are different. Square bore versus spread bore. Moving onto eBay I find a square bore to spread bore carb adapter. That solved I found a nice rebuilt Motorcraft 2150 and everything hooked up except the hose for the EGR port. Motorcraft doesn’t have a port but no matter as the carb runs perfectly in all aspects. Of course my next problem was an air cleaner to fit the Motorcraft base versus the smaller Holley base. Took some doing finding an appropriate Mopar 4bbl air cleaner. I know but it works.
Now the ignition. I started to have issues with the stock ignition and the car wouldn’t start with the key in start. I wasn’t getting anywhere near 12V. However, if I used a remote starter and put the key in run the car would start fine. So I proceeded to install a Pertronix II after figuring out how to find the 12V wire for the Pertronix coil. Took some doing but I got it done yet still the problem of not starting with key in start. Fine with now and I’ll use the remote inside the car. However, over a two year period the car burned out three modules of which Pertronix replaced two. This could get expensive. On top of that I was checking air pressure in the tires and used the my little pump that plugs into the lighter. When I turned it on the car went poof as in no electrical power via the ignition switch. Ugh! Fuse? Nope they were fine.
So I went through everything and replaced all the old fusible links. Cleaned the bulkhead connector. Replaced the ignition switch and then noticed what was under my dash. There is a connector that has eight wires with one being the main power. The main power had been bypassed given the scorched nature of the connector. Looking above there were the two halves of the main power wire tied together with a twist on wire cap. Ugh! Fixed that and my car was starting again still the typical way.
Now I studied up on how to do a HEI conversion to achieve my 12V ignition. Saw a post in an A Body forum about it and so I adapted it to my car. Bought an E-coil, an ignition module, the wire harness to go along with the Bosch (Tyco) relays I have in stock.
Then I drew out a schematic of my installation to follow.
The 15 amp AGC fuse.
I located this cool base for mounting the electronic module onto the bottom of a Mopar distributor utilizing the two holes in the base. The original black plug did have to be cut off in order to utilize two spade connectors which were needed.
Now the E-coil was not a canister so I had to figure out how to mount it. I didn’t want to put it on the firewall or fender as being too obvious and long distance. The original canister mounts via two bolts, at different heights, on the 2bbl manifold. Hmm, maybe I can make something. So down to the USS Hornet on one of my Saturday volunteer days and into the aircraft metal shop to look at scraps. I find a piece that is just wide enough and long enough of 6021 aircraft aluminum. I use the brake to put a bend in for the base and then go down to the machine shop to cut out a square opening for the coil. At home I paint it semigloss black and mount the coil with stainless steel screws and lock washers.
Time to put the relay in. Use a mounting point next to the ballast resistor. Next, wire up the relay as per my schematic using shrink wrap connectors. Tape off the tach wire. remove the ballast resistor and make bypass connectors. Install correct coil wire to distributor. Last go over everything one more time checking each connection start to finish. See no issues as I have put relays in the car before to run the headlights. Remove spark plugs and open gap from .035 to .040 for now. Starter is now a new Denso high torque mini which took a little doing to connect the cable. Years later I see there is an adapter made to re-position the lugs on the starter.
Houston we are now ready for ignition sequence. Multimeter in place? Check. Starter fluid sprayed down into the carb? Check. Pedal pumped three times? Check. With some trepidation, there is always some trepidation on the launch pad, I will use the key and turn to the start position. Within a split second the engine is on. I mean it is on so fast I never heard the starter turn. Wow, it was like it was always on. The sound through the new dual exhaust and 20″ Dynomax mufflers is a low rumble.
I get out and check my multimeter. I am getting 13 V through the coil to the distributor and the plugs. With the Motorcraft and HEI ignition there is a real difference of how the car runs on the freeway. The engine also continues to start instantly. More instantly than the 2018 Mazda, the 2004 Le Sabre, the 2004 Focus or the 1991 626. Only the 68 Cougar with a Pertronix II and solid rebuilt J code heads starts almost as fast.
As of now I could just continue to drive the car as is. Mechanically there are only a few things left. This spring the U-joints will get replaced. Might get ambitious and go through the A/C system and recharge with R12. Yes, I have the needed tools and refrigerant. Even more ambitious would be the front suspension bushings as I did on the 67 Park Lane.
Years earlier the original interior cleaned up well after removing everything for sound proofing and carpet re-dye. My headliner and vinyl roof were replaced by my guy who does upholstery work from his garage. Excellent work I may say. The vinyl roof was done after I did the body work and paint job on the car. Never had painted such a big long car, all at once before, but managed just fine. Up until then it was only an 8 foot bed of my 65 F-100.
However, there is one more thing lurking in the back of my mind and that is rebuilding the engine while I still can do the physical work now rather than when 75 as I have this and the Mercury 410 left. Might even use the chance to stroke the engine out to a 408 and raise the compression but leave the 2bbl carb so no one is the wiser. We’ll see…
Interesting.
I always assumed the Chrysler electronic ignition was a pretty good unit. I never had an issue with the one in our ’77 Dodge 360 Chinook, except of course the ballast resistor.
Now in terms of the carb, that’s a different story. The Holley 2 barrel in it was always a problem, until the engine was really good and hot. And even then… If I’d kept it, I would definitely be making this carb change.
When the car failed to start in “start” is when I began to think about it. It wasn’t working 100% and it wasn’t able to give me 12V like my other cars. The Pertronix systems have all worked flawlessly in in them for 10 years and more which is why I tried that. Switching to HEI simply happened because when the third Pertronix failed I had just read an article on HEI in an A Body.
It was, the only problem it had was in really hot climates. I replaced my ’74 Roadrunner’s and ’77 Power Wagon’s stock control boxes with MSD 6C boxes and moved the coil to the firewall. Problem solved. And why didn’t the author just buy a 4 barrel Edelbrock intake manifold and slap any number of carbs that would fit?
Why? For one I didn’t want that. Two, it was too far from original that it was out of the question.
The car came with a TQ if it had the 4 barrel originally, and the Edelbrock manifold was nearly identical to the stock cast iron 4 barrel one. Paint it and you can barely tell the difference, or look for the OE one. The linkage for it was available at almost any junkyard with a load of old Mopars in it. You made a lot of work for basically zero gain. A spread bore 4 barrel would have gotten better mileage, if driven conservatively and you would have had more power when you needed it. An MSD C5, 6, or even 7 plugs right in and off you go. I’m glad it all worked out for you, but it could have been a lot easier to do.
We had a 76 dodge tradesman van that would have cold running issues. It would start ok but if u drove it on cold days the choke would start closing even after the engine was warm so u would have to pull the engine cover off and stick a screwdriver to hold the choke plate open. This happened when the vehicle was fairly new. After several mechanics and several new chokes, which did not fix it, we found a good mechanic and he pulled the intake manifold and cleaned out carbon build up in the passage designed to let hot exhaust heat the carb up . Never had a problem after that. Not an ignition issue but if this happened so fast on this 360 2bbl engine I am sure others have the same build up and may suffer from like issues. We also had a 440 4bbl in a motorhome in 77 that the carb would freeze up on really cold days so it probably had the same issue. Got to love the 70’s and what people would put up with on their vehicles.
The Chrysler electronic ignition is very durable, way more durable than the Pertronix I which can not fire a low resistance coil so that it can create more voltage at the plug.
In IH land the Motorcraft 2150 is a popular choice for those stuck with a later model Scout as they too came with a Holley of the 22xx series. The good news for IH’ers is that since the 22xx carbs replaced the 2300 the Motorcraft is a bolt on, as long as you select the correct one that clears the water outlet.
For wiring relays just spend a couple of bucks and buy the relay connector. There are lots of options out there, with and without mounting tabs, preassembled with 6″ of wire or just the connector and terminals to add your own wire. Personally I use the ones with the mounting tab so that you can use the relays you’ll find under almost any hood in the wrecking yard and always get the connector with loose terminals as I do not do splices unless it is an emergency repair.
I do like the mounting base you used, though the fact that you can’t use the factory connectors with CPA means I’d be cutting it for clearance for the factory connector well before putting spades w/o any retention feature other than a bump that hopefully lines up with the hole.
And yes an old school Carb’ed car can start much quicker than a modern EFI engine that needs a couple of revolutions to figure out everything before it starts spraying fuel and making sparks.
Meant to add that you should go ahead and open the gap on the plugs to .045. The Ford E-core coil you have was designed for .054 and it will reliably fire well past .060. However there is no real advantage past .045, unless you are actually doing a true lean burn, no not the Chrysler marketing BS, but significantly leaner than 14.7 to 1.
Those are excellent upgrades, and that HEI module adapter is pretty slick! GM’s HEI is one of the best stock electronic ignition systems ever.
The Dodge Polara was one of the few cars that looked better in 1973 than it did in 1972 owing to that, er, unique front end design of the earlier car. And yours is a beauty! I love that interior. The 4 door hardtop may be the best looking of that body style, except possibly the wagon.
I never owned a Mopar V8 of that vintage, but recall that starting could be an issue. My buddy’s family had both a 73 Sportsman with a 360 (bought new) and a 73 Duster 318 (bought used). The Dodge could be tricky to start as it got older and the Duster gave you one single shot when you turned the key. If it fired and stalled you could grind that starter for the rest of the day and it would not start. Unless you shot starting fluid into it. Then it would fire and run all day long just fine.
Oh, and I notice you changed the wheelcovers. I kind of liked the stock 72-73 covers, there was a conservative elegance about them. However, they were what came on the 73 Sportsman van my buddy’s father bought. After about the 4th time chasing after escaping wheelcovers in the first couple of months he bought a set of alloy wheels and white letter Goodrich T/As and swapped them out. Problem solved.
Those covers for 1973, on my car, are unobtainium. Note that the design was used on all Dodge cars had a black center. The Spring Special cars got red centers as you can see in the top picture. There is a story that goes with why I changed them.
Twice I had the driver’s front pop off the car while in motion. Once out of a gas station and I stopped and picked it up. The second time was on the freeway at 65 mph with me in the 4th lane. Hit a rough spot and it flew off, through cars, across all lane till it hit the center concrete wall. I was really bummed.
Two nights later I thought maybe I can get it now on a Friday night late of the freeway. At 1 am I drove down to where it roughly happened between two exits. Over and over 6-7 times and then I saw it. Next time drove slowly half in the fast lane and half on the shoulder. Late so little traffic. Opened the car door, passed by the cover, and grabbed it. Stored it in a box with the other three and put on these 1970 Polara covers which fit extremely snug and have never popped off.
While the Chrysler electronic ignition was durable it was very weak. So yeah fouling the plugs on a cold start was not uncommon.
Those are indeed two highly recommendable upgrades. As twoeightythree says, GM really got HEI right; it is an outstanding ignition system, better than pretty much any of the other OE systems and also better than most of the aftermarket ones. And the Motorcraft 2100/2150 carb, likewise, is a very good design.
There’s one other minor tweak you might want to do: bypass the OSAC valve. That’s the widget on the firewall just inboard from the Chrysler ignition module in your fourth pic, with one hose to the distributor and one to the carburetor. The OSAC valve was a cheap, nasty, primitive, hang-on-and-pray means of squeaking the 1973 and 1974 cars past their Federal and California new-vehicle emissions certification tests so they’d be legal to offer for sale. It delays the vacuum signal to the vacuum advance by 7 to 17 seconds, which (obviously) means less spark advance, which means lower peak combustion chamber temperatures, which means less formation of NOx. It also means less power, lower efficiency, and poorer driveability. Connecting the hose directly from the carburetor’s spark advance port to the distributor’s vacuum advance will make things noticeably more sprightly in part-throttle driving.
About 15 years ago I had an across-the-street neighbor with a ’74 Plymouth, owned since new, very original. He didn’t know much about cars, but he’d managed to keep it going and intact—quite a feat, in Toronto. I pointed out the OSAC valve, described its function, and he warily allowed as how he’d try driving the car with the valve bypassed for one day. Next time I saw him he could scarcely stop happily chattering about how much better the car ran: “I’ve been just dealing with its hesitation for years! Decades! And now it’s just gone!”.
Good call on the spark delay valve removal. That can make a significant difference in off the line performance and general all around pep.
The HEI module, at least quality ones are great, but the rest of the system sucks. However since in a conversion you use the bullet proof OE Chrylser pickup (or Motorcraft if not doing it on a factory electronic ignition Chrysler) and a Ford coil the weak links are eliminated.
I will definitely do this. Thanks, Daniel for pointing it out. Mopars are not my strong point Fords are. I only got this car because I was impressed with a 73 owned by a fellow Cougar Club member. Haven’t seen one in my region since this one which I found locally a few months after seeing his in 2010
Lots of 70’s Fords came with vacuum delay valves in their vacuum advance and other vacuum plumbing. Their’s are the little two colored disc about the size of a stack of 5 or 6 quarters. The colors are codes as to the length of delay and the proper direction of installation.
Automatic choke and its vacuum pulloff were issues on my secondhand 1972 Dodge Polara (400cid-2bbl) for the five years I had it. Hard starting…stalling after starting, running too rich…adjusting that choke pulloff was critical. The heated intake on the air cleaner snorkel had to be working right, too. I finally got to where it all came together for a year before trading it.
What a great way to be rid of those pesky ballast resistors. You may empty the glove box now. And where did you get that mount for the module from? That is slick. And the Autolite/Motorcraft 21xx and 4100 are some of the most under appreciated carbs ever. Nice job!
Years back, I did an HEI conversion on my ’71 Electra 225, and I had to go past what seemed like three feet of resistor wire before I could get a full twelve volts to the coil. Prior to that, I found out just how quickly *any* length of resistor wire could burn up a coil. Fortunately, the old GM HEI coils are still relatively inexpensive…
When I did my HEI conversion to my SBC powered Holden, I shortened the resistor wire and used it to trigger a relay, then had the HEI draw through the relay. Not sure how what voltage I had to trigger the relay, but it was always enough to do the job. And the HEI got a solid 12V or better direct from the battery. Great article, and I really must get my ’69 Buick converted to electronic ignition
No EGR signal port on Motorcraft 2150?! You might want to look again….
Not all EGR ports are alike. The Chrysler setup used venturi vacuum to trigger a “vacuum amplifier”, a hockey puck-lookin’ thing that was essentially a vacuum relay: when the venturi vacuum reached a certain level, the “amplifier” sent manifold vacuum to the EGR valve to open it. The venturi vacuum is too weak to open the EGR valve, but compared to the stronger manifold vacuum it is a much finer-grained indicator of engine load. Hence the relay (“amplifier”) setup. Fords tended to use backpressure-modulated EGR valves. I don’t recall the exact nature of the vacuum porting used to operate them, but I am almost 100% sure it was not venturi vacuum, hence not compatible with the Mopar setup. If one wanted to maintain a functional EGR system with a Motorcraft 2150 carb swap onto a Chrysler product, it would take some thoughtful, informed re–engineering.
Yes, the port on the Holley carb was this very small orifice that sent a hose to the vacuum amplifier pictured here. My early 2150 does not have an egr port on it like later models did.
Yeah there are lots of 2150’s that don’t have a port for the EGR, just depends on the application.
Nice work.
As a person that has had many GM products with those ign modules, you should always keep a spare in the trunk as those can take a dump at random times
The early factory modules were not that reliable, but the later ones are. The big problem is the cheap aftermarket units. There were too many times to count where I had a no start GM product where the customer said “well I know it can’t be the module because I replaced it “not that long ago” and they always answered that it had be purchased as the same chain known for selling the crappiest ignition parts.
However now I don’t know if anyone still sells a quality version.
The other thing that kills them is not putting the right grease on the bottom of the module to act as a heat dissipater then the module will be cooked
I have had (and still have) a number of Mopars. In all my years of ownership (45+), I’ve had exactly ONE ballast resistor to go bad on me! Do I have a spare one?, yes, somewhere in my collection of various parts; but not in the glove box! 🙂
This is my third attempt at posting this, I keep getting a message that I am “posting comments too quickly?!?”
Ditto. But I have a few in the glove boxes just in case, or keep a jumper which will at least get you home so you can change the ballast resistor.
I didn’t carry a spare in my 64 D100. Then it went and I needed to walk to a parts store.
I bought two.
I had several ignition boxes die when I lived in Vegas, but only one ballast resistor and that was in Toledo in mid winter. I had a couple in the glove box in case, along with at least one ignition box. After I went to an MSD 6C ignition, no more failures. I left the “blue” ignition box on the firewall in case the MSD died, but it never did. My only issues with the MSD box was you had to have really great plug wires on it, or they would eat themselves up. Blue Max to the rescue!
That is a great car. I appreciate that you keep these fine old sedans running in tip top fashion. Coupes get all the love in the collector car world, sedans not so much. Sedans are like elementary and older age foster kids. So many kids that deserve a real home but its hard to fiind people to adopt and love them.
I am jealous of your Polara. I can just imagine keying up that Chrysler starter sound and tooling that smooth and responsive beast around town!
Great article and nice car. My mom had a 73 Plymouth Fury, it was her first new car. I am a big fan of GMs HEI ignition, IMO it was the best to come from Detroit in that era. My Chevy has the original HEI ignition, other than cap and rotor, and it still works fine after well over 40 years. Unlike others, HEI also used a full 12 volts without a resistor or resistor wire. It’s only downfall is that it isn’t great for high RPM use in stock form. It’s also getting tougher to find good quality modules these days.
I also have a lot of good to say about the old Motorcraft/Autolite 2100/2150 carbs. They were better than any of the 2bbl carbs GM or Chrysler used IMO.
I am in the midst of doing an HEI conversion on but on a Ford. I have used Pertronix in the past but I prefer the reliability and availability of a factory ignition. I was lucky enough to get a prototype distributor, which is a Ford Duraspark that has an integrated GM HEI module. It makes for a clean install and cuts back on the wiring. It’s also a bit more of a pain with Ford because the factory tachs are current sensing versus a voltage sensing tach, so I had to get my tach converted as running a full 12 volts through one will kill it in short order.
On the quick starting thing, my old Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser with HEI, when warm would start so fast you could literally just “bump” the key and it’d start.
Nice conversion but why the relay? I salute you for using the 2100 carb, those are a masterpiece of simplicity and function. I ended up using one from a 67 Comet/Falcon on my 62 D200 poly 318. It runs well and the linkage for the throttle and trans kickdown went together with no modifications necessary. I lost 2 Dodge orange boxes on my 71 D200 383 within a week, one I was able to remove the potting and repair but the other one is toast. The fried one is now gutted and is going to get the HEI module installed as soon as I find some heat sink material.
The relay’s a super good idea because an HEI system draws more current than the car’s ignition primary circuit was specified to dependably provide—and that was when the wires, connections, terminals, and switch in the circuit were all new and perfect. Voltage drop in the supply to the system can result in starting and driveability troubles.
You should have just bought an MSD 5 or 6C box, and moved the stock coil, or put an aftermarket coil on the firewall. And put GOOD plug wires on it. The GM HEI was a POS the coil would fire downwards into the advance weights, corroding the hell out of them and making it a hassle to go in an polish everything up to make the advance mechanism work right again. I had to do this the day I bought my ’79 403 Olds powered T/A. Oh, the coil was all blue too and was weak, so I just bought an external coil adapter, and put one of those giant Accel yellow coils on the firewall. and used the best rotor I could find in the distributor. Four years later, I had to replace the distibutor, the bushings were worn out, but the advance mechanism was working fine. As far as the carb went, a 4 barrel Edelbrock (I think Weiand made one too) and the linkage out of any 318/360 4 barrel carb, along with a spread bore carb, would have been an easy and better fix, IMHO. I did that exact thing to my ’77 Power Wagon, which came with the Holley 2 barrel. I put a Thermoquad on it, and had no issues with the carb or ignition, once I put a really good set of plug wires on it. Blue Max back then.
Once again too far from original, and too obviously not original, and I don’t do that. A 45 year old original version of anything tends to be far more rare than the modified versions. I’m a strong believer in preserving history as it was and will only make changes that would make for safer, more reliable driving. Those would be better and discrete ignition changes, dual master cylinders, and relays for headlights as examples.
‘Scuze me: what kind of a person responds to an article describing a successful job with “That’s stupid and wrong, you should have done this other thing!”? And then goes on to describe a bunch of faults and flaws that can be categorised as “Extremely unlikely to ever happen”, “Won’t happen in this installation because it can’t”, and “Fault lies with tinker, not with tinkered-upon”?
Asking for a friend.
’73 & ’74 were the low point of drivability for all makes, not just Mopars.
The upgrades you did look well designed. Nice fab work too. I wish I could find a mechanic today that had the same pride in their work. I echo Dan’s comment about the OSAC valve. It will make a difference!
I imagine the survivor rate on 73-74 models of any make is low due to the drivability issues inherent with their emissions kit. Your mods help preserve a nice – and I suspect rare – old Dodge.
Well done. A tip of an old mechanic’s cap to your workmanship sir.
The author is very brilliant repurposing old parts and pieces to solve problems. I am always a fan of adding cubic inches to a vehicle. Doing it discreetly is also fun. If you do bore and stroke this engine please don’t choke it off with that two barrel carburetor. Get an aftermarket four barrel aluminum intake and paint it to look like the factory cast iron intake. Add an aftermarket four barrel carburetor in the 500-650 cfm range. Fuel economy and performance will both be improved.
The 2100 ranged in CFM ratings depending on the size of the venturi.
0.098 – 190 cfm, 1.01 – 240 cfm, 1.02 – 245 cfm, 1.08 – 287 cfm, 1.14 – 300 cfm, 1.21 – 351 cfm, 1.23 – 356 cfm, 1.33 – 424 cfm
I had a 1.33 on my ’73 Galaxie with an RV cammed 400M and dual exhausts and it ran great!
You are my idol.
Love your Dodge! I too had a ’73 Polara (mine was a wagon), it was my second car. Bought it for the princely sum of $30.00 (yep, THIRTY BUCKS!) way, way back in ’80. Had it for maybe 2 weeks when it just flat would not start. Being a broke teen I couldn’t afford a brand new ignition module so I went to the local yard, Olmsted Auto Parts, and bought a used one… they had a small child’s beach bucket full of Chrysler ignition modules under the counter 😀 ! Picked out a newish looking one and for $5 I got that boat back on the road.
That’s the first time Ive heard of a Pertronix going bad. Did you find out what was causing the modules to go bad?
Ballast resistors can be bypassed on Pertronix ignitions; you simply run a jumper and join the wires and Ive seen guys hollow out ballast resistors and run the jumper wire inside of it to look stock.
Mopar electronic ignitions were pretty stout until they got a bad supplier for the ‘orange boxes’ and they would fail without any warning, leaving you stranded (ask me how I know.) I understand the new ones are supposed to be better though. A lot of guys just upgraded to the race-spec Mopar ‘chrome box’ and that’s a much better unit anyway.
I run a chrome box on my Road Runner and Pertronix’s on the stock 318s in my Charger and Satellite and they’re all pretty happy; the one on my Charger is almost 10 years old now.
“That’s the first time Ive heard of a Pertronix going bad. Did you find out what was causing the modules to go bad?”
I sent the first one over to Pertronix for them to look at. A few weeks later they sent me another one which went into the car and would become the second one to fail. I had to call and ask. Their comment was an internal failure possibly due to extreme voltage. Beyond that they had nothing.
They always failed after I had taken a minimum 50 mile drive, then parked the car, came out a week later and the car was a no start. Switch a spare module in and the car started.
Great work TBM3FAN. Thanks for the report. Two big pains put to rest.
Going back to the original starting issue, when it would fire up by remote, but not key-turn?
The key switch usually had two ignition circuits; one “hot” during crank mode, one hot during run. Likely there was some issue there. Granted it’s water under the bridge now, but maybe it’ll help the next person.
It wasn’t mentioned but sometimes “phasing” is an issue with module swaps. In a nutshell it’s making sure that the rotor is in close vicinity to a cylinder’s cap terminal when it’s time to fire; keeping the spark “jump” to a minimum.
The carb is a great upgrade. How about the TV (kickdown) linkage changeover? Was it as easy, clean and simple as it looks? The distance and radius of travel were close enough? Did the transmission shift well, first try?
I have a ’74 Newport in waiting for a similar fuel and ignition treatment. Although it has the “big” mill and Thermoquad carb, so it wont be exactly the same territory. Mostly it has an ignition gremlin. Maybe I’ll go ignition first and see if the Thermoquad comes around. I’ll report when I get to it. Off the edge of your seats! It may be a bit. LoL