So the story has a happy ending, thanks in no small part to Dan and all of you who chimed in. I ended up installing another ASD relay when Dan questioned my bench testing which showed the relay to be working and voila it fired right up. Was making a lot of metallic noise so I shut it off immediately my mind filling with thoughts like “did I put the windage tray in correctly, is the dipstick hitting the crank, do I have oil pressure” Then it occurred to me that the hydraulic lifters might have leaked down as it sat for a week with the oil pan off and continued to drip oil the whole time. I risked starting it again to confirm I had oil pressure, the OP was good and the noise was less.
After discussing with Dan a procedure for refilling the lifters by running the engine for 5 seconds, waiting 60 seconds, repeat as needed, the lifters quieted down to their normal nearly silent selves.
Now to replace all the tie wraps I cut to gain access to the harness and ASD relay. The relay I inserted was a used MOPAR ASD one I had but lacks a mounting tab which is ok for now but I want to put a new relay in. Is there one in particular that is recommended as the most reliable or is that an oxymoron with mechanical relays?
Thanks again everyone. I have 10 cars, all of them old like me. They all require ongoing maintenance and repairs, its my full time job since retirement and moving to a very rural area where there are no specialty shops devoted to particular marques. I rely heavily on forums like this for advice and so far have been able to keep the fleet on the road despite my many flatbed trips back home.
