mopar's 'orange box'

As you've been told numerous times, the Hall Effect sensor in your distributor will NOT interface with the Chrysler "orange box" ignition module.

As I mentioned earlier, there is an ignition box that was used in the late 70s Omni/Horizon that did support a Hall Effect sensor. The Delco part number for that box is; C1915 The CarQuest part number is 55-1575 (I'm sure there are other vendors) It has a 5 pin connector that is a different shape than what is found on the "orange box" ignition module, it's shaped differently for a very good reason (because the two triggering types DO NOT INTERCHANGE!)

The connector is laid out as follows;

1 2 3 4 5

Connector shape; the top is flat, the rest is a semi-circle (think smiling mouth)

Pin 1 corresponds to the gray wire at your Hall Effect sensor. Pin 2 corresponds to the black/light blue wire at your Hall Effect sensor Pin 3 goes to ignition coil negative Pin 4 is J2, ignition hot B+ Pin 5 corresponds to the orange wire at your Hall Effect sensor.

Other than dropping what I'm doing and coming over there and installing the damn thing, I don't know what else can be done for you, but for god sake, stop trying to fit a square peg in a round electrical socket.

You still won't have ANY type of spark advance, so set the base timing high if you want any kind of economy and hope to hell it will crank on a hot soak.

And FWIW (what do I know, I only worked for 2 C-P dealerships and one large metro utility fleet that was 90% MoPar) the 2.2 distributors were crap, the Hall Effect sensor is/was a high failure item and the distributors themselves were loose as all shit.

Thanks for reinforcing the concepts in my brain.

I don't want to trash the OEM mopar distributor just yet, and rather than yank out its distributor drive cog to mount it on the 009 drive shaft for my

2.2 motor, I'll pursue your advice and look at the 70's Omni/Horizon ignition box.

at gofastforless.com, there is a suggestion to use the mopar orange box with point-only distributors:

" Since the transistor in the box handles all the current you will never burn the points, no matter how many amps the coil is pulling. There is one advantage points have over a magnetic pickup. If the ignition module craps out in the middle of nowhere you can just bypass it and keep going."

All told, I'm still happy with the Bosch 009 in place of the stock 2.2 Hall-effect distributor, and as mentioned before, pertronix option for the

009 is probably the best choice in the long run.

I'm pretty much a mini-mopar (2.2/2.5 l. motors) far these days.

Most if not all hall effort sensors in distributors are cam sensors. Beats me how you can fire 4 times on one signal.

Four windows in the HE rotor, just like a points distributor has a cam with lobes corresponding to the number of cylinders.

Dan

Can be done but the rubbing block on the points will still be a failure point as you've recently found out. That site also reinforces what I said earlier, 43 degrees of dwell, that equals short burn time at the spark plug, shorter in fact than what the original ignition system on your van.

Or; you could carry a spare ignition box and swap -that- out. I carried a spare for many years, the ruggedness of the available ChryCo boxes has dropped in recent years, to the point where I lost trust in their reliability

It would be if you can accurately size the drive cog to the 009 distributor shaft. Hogging it out with a Dremel tool leaves me wincing a bit...

Me too. I made a boat load of money replacing head gaskets on 'em.

"Most" may be cam sensors (actually I doubt that) but absolutely not all are cam sensors.

Never looked inside a Mopar 2.2/2.5 distributor, have you?

Nope. Most of the bad mopar distributors I see are in Jeeps.

I'll bite. Can you you name any other distributors with hall effect for the pickup? (Not optical)

Being a Jeep owner too, that's the first thing I thought of when you mentioned cam sensors in the distributor ;-)

The mopar 2.2/2.5 had a 4-fingered chopper in the distributor. The fingers passed through a hall effect sensor and generated 4 ignition event pulses per distributor rotation. Just like a reluctor or optical pickup, except implemented with a hall sensor.

Come to think of it... no. But can you think of any besides the Jeep

4.0/2.5 that are used as cam sensors inside the distributor? :-)

Given that Jeep put about 3 million of those in Cherokees alone, you might just win the "most" award, even if no one else used them as cam sensors.

Yeah, I see you've been there/done that. I've already had that 'chocolate milk syndrome' in my radiator (water/oil mixed from blown head gasket), that's is definitely a weak link in the mopar 2.2 motor.

I also hate the fact that a broken alternator belt in this engine also takes out the water pump, but OTOH keeping an oil filter and external cooler lets it run real cool(another trick I learned from the vee-dub engines -- every

20 degrees reduction in oil temp. double engine oil life). In fact, I can take off the radiator cap in this 2.2 Caravan motor anytime of the day (hot traffic, Florida summer afternoons), and I don't get my face and arms permanently disfigured from a pressurized steam bath. I guess I have an oversized radiator in the van, but I'm not sure.

Ford TFI

MoPar V-6 and V-8 trucks, 3.9, 5.2, 5.9 (shame on you Steve) ;-) GM V-6 and V-8s until the new generation engines came out.

Gm HEI definitely not Hall effect.

Doh! (dope slap self) Forgot about TFI. That makes a lot of distributors with a hall effect pickup.

I think you win. Ford TFI distributors had a hall effect pickup. Millions and millions of these were made. Thankfully, not a whole lot left running around here.

oops. I'll plead that although there is both a 5.2 and a 5.9 in the family, neither one has ever had to have its distributor cap off.