I'm not a professional mechanic that's why I'm here. I have a 1987 D150, 318 L.A. small block, 904 automatic transmission, short bed regular cab, rwd. I went to autozone to get a new alternator, volatge regulator, transmission pan gasket and filter, and tail light bulbs. When I got there I had them put my battery on the charger while I changed the tail light bulbs and voltage regulator, they had to order the voltage regulator. I came back later on and got the alternator and put it on in the pouring rain. I somehow got the wiring harness going to the alternator torqued down in between the mounting bolt for the alternator and the valve cover, grounding it. It ended up burning all the way through the harness on the firewall and I had to be towed home. At home I ran all new wire where the burnt ones were, replaced the starter relay, the ignition coil tested good, cleaned out the distributer cap and pickup coil, but still no fire at the plugs. The engine turns over and I'm getting fuel, and I'm getting fire to the ignition coil, but no fire at the plugs. What's wrong? Any ideas? Can I take the ignition system off my 1976 W200 318 automatic and swap it just to get me on the road?

 

You cant swap it because your 87 has the "Lean Burn" system. It has a small pre-computer computer under the fender near the battery. The ignition system in your older truck is the standard mopar electronic ignition and the one in your 87 is the lean burn system which uses a different distributor. If you have fried the distrib. you can always convert the lean burn ( get rid of it all together) and install the standard mopar elec. ignition. I did that to mine.

 

Lean Burn is for emissions and was problematic that's why so many ripped it out. Replace it with a standard moper electronic one.