pfinch

G'day From The Land Down Under
Can anyone help ?
My mate down here has an imported 1978 Dodge D20, 3 Ton . The motor we
think
is non original 318 .(very smokey)
It has points ignition. We cannot get it to run without bypassing the
ignition .( starter to battery & coil) There is one wire under the
bonnet we do not know what it goes to at distributor

(1) Does anyone in the States have a workshop electrical drawing that
can
be scanned and emailed to me ? Or know of websites to obtain workshop
manuals .
All Australian Hemi's were electronic ignition after 73 ,

(2) Would this be the correct build engine for this D20 with points ?
Very interested in American Dodge's and Plymouths after serving my
apprenticeship at Chrysler Aust. as an Engineering Patternmaker and
had a lot to do with Hemi's and Fireballs

( 3 ) Can anyone help us Convict Stock down under ?
( 4 ) My mates brother-in-law would like to import any Dodge's or
Plymouth's (55 to 75) . Does anyone have anything laying around out
the
back , rusting away ,wanting to sell of any interest ( muscle cars or
unique), please send any pics .

(5 ) Is it as simple to covert points to electronic ,simply but
installing a an electronic Dizzy ?

Thank-you all and kind regard's
pfinch@esc.net.au

nirodac

Have you checked the ballast resistor. It's a white ceramic block on the
left fender.

I didn't think anybody used points after 1970.
And would that be a 1978 D200, 3/4 ton

Nirodac

pfinch

Thanks Nirodac,
I will check that when I catch up with my mate, and if
its a D20, will look on the web to find out one looks like .
I had to laugh about the points after 1970,The General here did not
get rid of his until about 1982 I think,,, Ford somewhere in between .
Just a bit of trivia,Chrysler here built the fastest ever Coupe, 1973
Valiant Charger with 265,3 speed,triple twin throat carbs ,even the
big Ford 351's never ever caught up ,we had rev head engineers in
those days. Only 500 were ever built and sold to the public,as we had
to do that to enter in our old race here,,The Bathurst 500 mile. It
was a endurance production car race but the trouble with our valiants
was,that they went like hell,but you could not turn or stop them at
the end of the mile straight at Bathurst

gavin

Hi;

Nirodac;

I have a 1978 with a VIN plate that says D20 as well.

My suggestion to our southern hemisphere Dodge brethren is to find or order
the electronic ignition conversion. Did the V-8's ever come with electronic
ignition before Mitsubishi bought out Chrysler Australia? If they did just
grab the ballast resistor, the ignition box, and the distributor, and as
much of the wiring as you can pull out. Wiring up the ignition is fairly
straightforward.

Where in Aussie are you?

Gavin

pfinch

Thanks Gavin for your input
All the Company Cars that my Dad bought home , 318's and 360's all had
electronic ignition, the earliest we had in a V8 was a VJ 1974, then
VK 360's
I spoke to my friend and he is getting an ignition pack,so thats not a
problem to fix,but when he got the D20.All the wiring under the
bonnet was hanging inpieces,from what we suspect was a rough engine
change before it got sent over.Also,we suspect that the wiring colour
codes are different from Aust to the States,,,and then the unknown
wire from the distrubitor we have. Nothing a wiring Diagram could not
fix rather than pay an electrician money to nut out.
I have a mate here with a Chrysler Mitsi wrecking yard ,so it is not
hard to get Valiant stuff,sorta ,well getting harder now.
He is dropping a 360 in his D20,as we have an American one ,as the oil
filter is at the bottom of the motor,not on top on oil lines ,like an
Aussie V8 Hemi.
We are Crow Eaters by the way Gavin.
Bye and Thanks
Pete

gavin

Pete;

The factory shop manual for this truck is probably floating around on Ebay.

Is the distributor an electronic one with a two prong plug or a points unit?

Crow eater, eh! You're wife's name isn't Roxie is it? Been a while since I
was there, but I enjoyed SA. Great people, and great g****.

Cheers,

Gavin

pfinch

Howdy Gavin,,,,,its points distributor,,,,,,,,no my wife's name is not
Roxy.
Where are you from down here?How long have you had the D20 and would
you know of any others here at all? What engine does yours have ?
Pete

gavin

Pete;

Okay so we don't know the same woman in SA.

My D20 has the original 318 with electronic ignition in it. It's about
12,000 miles away from yours.

I suspect you are going to need the wiring diagram more than anything else.
One hint is the connector at the firewall is prone to corrosion and the
ammeter usually fries rendering no power to anything downstream of it.

If it is truly a 78 I and was imported privately I would expect electronic
ignition. If it was brought in by Chrysler then the points set up might be
the way they built them for your market back then.

Gavin