Jumper wire to coil?

[Dobbskel]

Question is about a 1990 RamCharger with a 318. I bought it from a guy do to him not being able to get it to run. I had to put a jumper from the battery to that coil and to get spark. Will this hurt the computer or affect the Fuel injection at all? Plus, I checked the fuse block and all looks good, Is there a fusible like in line with the computer to check?

[amac209]

i'm not sure about a 90 ramcharger but a lot of dodge no starts were caused by a thing called a ballast resistor. get a diagram of the ignition system from a chilton or haynes manual. a little time and a test light should find the problem fairly quickly. if you run it for too long off the battery you'll probably burn out the coil

[gengelman]

I'm no expert but I consider myself an accomplished jerryrigger. I would assume any jerryrigs could be harmful to modern vehicles. The battery to coil jumper was the classic "hotwire" way to steal cars years ago. It is a good way to bypass and therefore test the primary ignition circuit. I drove a hotwired 1979 Jeep pickup with all dodge electrical systems including computer without any problem for about 20,000 miles. If a hotwire worked then you should consider corrosion on the primary circuit terminals, an internally broken wire, a loose harness, a faulty ignition switch. My Jeep problem turned out to be an internally fractured wire near the coil wire harness. That is why it took 20K miles to figure it out. The permanent fix was soldering new heavy gauge wires directly to the coil and the ignition switch terminal.
Bypassing switches and relays one at a time is a pain in the ass but then so are Dodges. I would not recommend driving a hotwired 1990 anything very far because of all the sensitive feedback systems newer cars have.

[gengelman]

I re-read your post and realized you obviously know all about hotwires. At first I thought your friend did it. My post may be useless to you but may be informative to someone else. My bad.

[Dobbskel]

Your info was good, and I do agree with you that I should put a new wire from the ignition. The big issue is that the 1990 has a computer controling the spark and fuel injection. I never crossed this path with my 77 and 79 dodges with 318's in them. I was thinking of maybe ditching the fuel injection and go with a new style carter four barrel, which I have?

[1thunder]

No don't ditch injection on this unit man this system works very good and it is fairly simple to repair. Now i'm assuming you jumped from battery+ to coil + so if you did there is a relay on the drivers side fender above the center of the wheel well i believe this ralay feeds fuel pump + injector+ and the coil+ now you must determine if relay is goog or is it getting enrgized or is there a feed+ wire rotten or not feeding 12v. With the key on and not running you must have 12v at 2 terminals at this relay if not your fuse links are just below relay on harness. Also if distributor pick up is faulty relay will not get energized as pcm will not see engine rpm or rotation and will not ground relay check this out first

[Dobbskel]

I will that, it sounds a lot easier than the other option. I was told by a friend that the fuel injection is as good as you say and he also agreed that I should keep it. He said it will have plenty of power and still save on gas. Thanks much!!!