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Ralph Mowery[_3_]

In article ,
says...
it.
I can diagnose that one from here. It had a double ballast resistor
on the firewall and one of the resistors was intermittent. It provided
power to the coil when you cranked the engine. If it fired when you
released the key it started. If it didn't, it didn't. It ran on the
other half of the resistor. COMMON problem back then (that, as you
know, flummoxed a LOT of "mechanics" who did not understand the
system.Back then it was a $5 part. I always had 2 mounted on the
firewall so an on-the-road fix took about 20 seconds.
A couple years later the system was re-designed to not need that
resistor

Sounds reasonable to me. I don't know that much about the electrical
system, but think that back in the 12 volt system years before the
modern computer stuff that some ballast resistors were shorted out for
cranking. Could be an intermittent connection somewhere in the starting
system. Anyway whatever the problem was two dealerships failed to find
the problem in a good number of trips back. The dealer in the town I
bought it from and the dealer in the town I lived in.