1971 Plymouth Barracuda Base from North America - Comments
14th Nov 2024, 19:30
I am posting an approximate one-year update of my 1971 Barracuda. Shortly after my last review, quite a lot happened and I wanted to wait to see how things shook out. Last December, the car had 114,403 miles on it. At 114,420 I changed the air filter. Later in December the temperatures were near freezing but there had been no snow so I was still driving the car on the weekends. Everything had been fine all summer and fall, but in December I experienced a mysterious non-start issue. The car would fire up right away and run but would die after about a minute and a half. This always occurred as the idle speed increased to a peak as the automatic choke was ready to pull off to the next step down to fast idle. When the engine reached peak idle, it would just quit, no stutter or warning, like flipping a switch. The first couple of times, it would start right up again and I could drive it around the neighborhood. Then the next couple of times it wouldn't start right up, but when I came back to it later in the afternoon it would start up and I could drive it.
At first I thought it might have been some fuel additive that congealed in the jets in the cold and starving it out, since it died just as it was reaching peak idle. Then I thought perhaps the electronic ignition control module mounted on the firewall wasn't grounded because of being painted at the body shop several years ago, so I scratched through the paint to get a good ground. These incremental things would seem to help, but then didn't. Finally it did me the favor of not starting at all and I was able to pull a spark plug, ground it on the exhaust manifold, and confirm no spark. I interpreted this as a failed electronic ignition control module. I tested the hypothesis by putting in an orange box ECM from my 1973 Charger, which sits next to the Barracuda in the garage, and it fired right up and ran after not starting with no spark. The starting and not starting was so inconsistent that it left a lot open to conjecture before it outright failed. My records from the earliest years of ownership back in the late 1980s are sketchy, but I believe the ECM was from the original Direct Connection electronic ignition conversion kit I installed. That means the ECM had barely 25,000 miles on it, but was 35 years old. I don't believe I replaced it after the engine fire, just the distributor for the burned wiring. I ordered a new ECM from Mancini Racing, who apparently took over the Direct Connection parts warehouse, and all has been well this year. I've put over 700 miles on the car this year since replacing the ECM and no more problems.
I wanted to share my own experiences with Chrysler ignition control modules on 1970s cars. I've heard many people say they quit like turning off a switch, and either work or don't work. That has not quite been my experience. I've now had three ignition control modules quit on my over the years, two in my 1973 Charger and now one in the 1971 Barracuda. I have found they do give you a little warning if you listen carefully. In all cases, the subtle warning sign was that a usually perfectly running engine would suddenly die for no apparent reason, but after sitting for a few minutes, would start and run again. You might get 10 or 15 minutes of run time out of it after that, but will probably only have 2-3 more times before it quits for good. That would maybe have been enough in the old days to get to an auto parts store, but these days nobody carries these modules so it's a warning to get the car to a safe place.
It now makes me wonder how odd it was that last year I had a number of issues loosely related to started. I did not connect loose battery clamps, the failed alternator, and the electronic ignition control module. They would seem to me to be unrelated, and yet all these things went bad around the same time. Although, the alternator just had bad bearings. One other thing I've heard people mention is that 1970s MoPars blow ballast resistors, and how you always have to carry a spare in the glove box. This is the start-no run problem. I've been driving these cars (current 1971 Barracuda, 1973 Charger, and 1975 Charger) and previous 1985 Ramcharger as well as my parents' three previous Volare station wagons and Chrysler New Yorker, for years and I never had a ballast resistor go bad.
Finally, I had the fuel sending unit replaced, which was a mistake. The gas gauge has read empty for years. I checked the grounding strap and it was good, and also checked the power feed to the unit and it alternated between high and low voltage, that is about half a volt and nine volts, which is an effect of the electromechanical unit in the dashboard, so i knew it was getting power. I ordered a new sending unit from Year One and had it installed. I say it was a mistake because, just like my Charger, the new unit wasn't really calibrated for the car. I would have done better to just have the brass float replaced. In the case of the Barracuda, it had developed a hole so sank to the bottom of the tank when it filled with gas and read empty. The new unit reads 3/4 when it's full, and reads empty when it still has six gallons left. I guess that's better than not working at all. Again, the internet says it's always the dashboard circuits, but if anybody else has the no gas gauge problem at least consider the brass float being bad, and check the voltage.
The car now has 115,164 miles and I think it's about time to put it away for the year, even though the weather is still nice in mid November here, and probably will be through December. There probably will not be another update unless something of note happens. I still love the car and will likely keep putting something less than 1,000 miles per year on it for as many years as I can.
14th Nov 2024, 19:30
I am posting an approximate one-year update of my 1971 Barracuda. Shortly after my last review, quite a lot happened and I wanted to wait to see how things shook out. Last December, the car had 114,403 miles on it. At 114,420 I changed the air filter. Later in December the temperatures were near freezing but there had been no snow so I was still driving the car on the weekends. Everything had been fine all summer and fall, but in December I experienced a mysterious non-start issue. The car would fire up right away and run but would die after about a minute and a half. This always occurred as the idle speed increased to a peak as the automatic choke was ready to pull off to the next step down to fast idle. When the engine reached peak idle, it would just quit, no stutter or warning, like flipping a switch. The first couple of times, it would start right up again and I could drive it around the neighborhood. Then the next couple of times it wouldn't start right up, but when I came back to it later in the afternoon it would start up and I could drive it.
At first I thought it might have been some fuel additive that congealed in the jets in the cold and starving it out, since it died just as it was reaching peak idle. Then I thought perhaps the electronic ignition control module mounted on the firewall wasn't grounded because of being painted at the body shop several years ago, so I scratched through the paint to get a good ground. These incremental things would seem to help, but then didn't. Finally it did me the favor of not starting at all and I was able to pull a spark plug, ground it on the exhaust manifold, and confirm no spark. I interpreted this as a failed electronic ignition control module. I tested the hypothesis by putting in an orange box ECM from my 1973 Charger, which sits next to the Barracuda in the garage, and it fired right up and ran after not starting with no spark. The starting and not starting was so inconsistent that it left a lot open to conjecture before it outright failed. My records from the earliest years of ownership back in the late 1980s are sketchy, but I believe the ECM was from the original Direct Connection electronic ignition conversion kit I installed. That means the ECM had barely 25,000 miles on it, but was 35 years old. I don't believe I replaced it after the engine fire, just the distributor for the burned wiring. I ordered a new ECM from Mancini Racing, who apparently took over the Direct Connection parts warehouse, and all has been well this year. I've put over 700 miles on the car this year since replacing the ECM and no more problems.
I wanted to share my own experiences with Chrysler ignition control modules on 1970s cars. I've heard many people say they quit like turning off a switch, and either work or don't work. That has not quite been my experience. I've now had three ignition control modules quit on my over the years, two in my 1973 Charger and now one in the 1971 Barracuda. I have found they do give you a little warning if you listen carefully. In all cases, the subtle warning sign was that a usually perfectly running engine would suddenly die for no apparent reason, but after sitting for a few minutes, would start and run again. You might get 10 or 15 minutes of run time out of it after that, but will probably only have 2-3 more times before it quits for good. That would maybe have been enough in the old days to get to an auto parts store, but these days nobody carries these modules so it's a warning to get the car to a safe place.
It now makes me wonder how odd it was that last year I had a number of issues loosely related to started. I did not connect loose battery clamps, the failed alternator, and the electronic ignition control module. They would seem to me to be unrelated, and yet all these things went bad around the same time. Although, the alternator just had bad bearings. One other thing I've heard people mention is that 1970s MoPars blow ballast resistors, and how you always have to carry a spare in the glove box. This is the start-no run problem. I've been driving these cars (current 1971 Barracuda, 1973 Charger, and 1975 Charger) and previous 1985 Ramcharger as well as my parents' three previous Volare station wagons and Chrysler New Yorker, for years and I never had a ballast resistor go bad.
Finally, I had the fuel sending unit replaced, which was a mistake. The gas gauge has read empty for years. I checked the grounding strap and it was good, and also checked the power feed to the unit and it alternated between high and low voltage, that is about half a volt and nine volts, which is an effect of the electromechanical unit in the dashboard, so i knew it was getting power. I ordered a new sending unit from Year One and had it installed. I say it was a mistake because, just like my Charger, the new unit wasn't really calibrated for the car. I would have done better to just have the brass float replaced. In the case of the Barracuda, it had developed a hole so sank to the bottom of the tank when it filled with gas and read empty. The new unit reads 3/4 when it's full, and reads empty when it still has six gallons left. I guess that's better than not working at all. Again, the internet says it's always the dashboard circuits, but if anybody else has the no gas gauge problem at least consider the brass float being bad, and check the voltage.
The car now has 115,164 miles and I think it's about time to put it away for the year, even though the weather is still nice in mid November here, and probably will be through December. There probably will not be another update unless something of note happens. I still love the car and will likely keep putting something less than 1,000 miles per year on it for as many years as I can.