HELP

I just made a 200 mile trip to pick up my new 67' /6 Dart Convertible with all the go fast stuff. Drove the thing up on to a trailer strapped it down, and headed back home to Down East Maine. Nice easy drive all 400 miles of it until the end of my driveway where the unloading was to take place. Jumped in turned the key... nothing, zip, no lights no horn, no starter, zero.

Put a test light on the battery, starter, and checked for ground all ok. Still no electrical working any where other than the battery, and the large cable to the starter.

There is one big rats nest of wires under the dash from an after market stereo, and lord knows what else, in and around the drivers side. The juice dosen't seem to be getting to the fuse panel an item I was unable to locate in the dark.

Has any one got an idea what got loose during a 200 mile trailer ride to cause a total electrical melfunction?

I would actually check for a blown fusible link, which would kill power to the whole car altogether. It should be on the firewall, running between the starter relay and the main firewall electrical pass-through connector, tagged as "FUSE LINK" or "FUSIBLE LINK". It blows in severe-overcurrent situations (such as perhaps a short circuit from that rat's nest you mention?) to prevent the car's wiring harness going up in flames.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Dan's suggestion is the most plausible. The fusible link is a short, sort of rubbery section of fat wire, often with a cast in tag on it, saying fussible link, that will be located right at the fire wall bulkhead connector. If it hasn't been fooled with, it should be at the end of one of the the wires that goes from the starter relay to the bulkhead connector.

That is as really nice car you have picked up. I would love to have one like it. I would clear up the "rats nest" under the dash before I did anything else. You might want to take out the seats so you can lie down on your back and look up under the dash. What are your plans for the car? Are you restoring it, or just driving it? The wiring on these old cars is getting to be one of their major weaknesses. You might consider replacing the wiring harness both under dash, and under hood. They are expensive, but replacing them is a major upgrade to the performance and reliability of the automobile. Loss of voltage through these old connectors causes loss in power, acceleration, peppiness, smoothness of idle, and economy.

If you don;t want to spend the money, consider simply replacing the connectors yourself. Examine them, and see if they look overheated at any time. If they are burnt looking, or melted in any way, then all the wiring is kind of suspect, as this is an indication of reduced voltage causing high amperage which caused the damage. It is a kind of a death spiral, as the heat causes further resistance, and higher amps yet, and more burning etc. Don't be discouraged. Just take your time and get it right. This is a nice car, and worth fixing.

Sam

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Now that it daylight, and above 19 degrees, I have been able get the car to run. There are several problems to be addressed.

Firstly I discovered an anti-theft device under the dash causing 80% of the rat's nest, and cut it all out. Don't panic, I traced each lead one at a time to be sure what was being sniped.

Secondly there is an after market remote control stereo that needs to be removed. Funny how that trendy stuff can look so out of date so quickly. The factory radio will be shipped to a fellow who repaired my digital am/fm cassette radio from my 82 LeBaron Convt. It worked like new when I got it back. oldstereo(at)hotmail(dot)com No web site

Thirdly there are after market amp, temp, oil pressure gages, and a cheep tac. that need to be rewired, or removed.

The factory gages don't appear to be working. It may be that they have been by passed.

The car still has an intermittent interruption of current, and I have not pinpointed the bad connection yet.

What I plan to do is clean and lube with dielectric grease all factory connections. Repair any other home made messes and seal them with heat shrink sleaves.

There is an electrical manual on its way...

Thanks for the help

Athough I choked on even the bargain-hunted $35 price I found, it will pay you to buy a bottle of Stabilant 22A (if you don't turn up a good price with a web search, you can get it through auto parts stores as Standard Motor Products #SL5, or NAPA #CE1). This is not a contact cleaner; there are plenty of those out there. This is a contact enhancer fluid, and you may read about it here and here.

Potential lower-cost source here

Field notes here, here, here, and here (last one is a long page but an interesting read, search on the page for the word stabilant )

I was a skeptic until I tried it. My bottle is still almost full -- you use it a tiny drop at a time -- and it has already performed a couple dozen miracles for me around the house, office, and car.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

/6 Dan,

Thanks for the heads up on Stabilant 22. Should I decrud 41 years of mung from the connectors, or will this stuff work with just a spray on the connected connector?

By any chance dose Canadian Tire carry this stuff? We have one just two miles... rather 4 clicks from here.

You're going to want to clean the connectors; Stabilant-22a isn't a contact cleaner, it's a contact enhancer. Yes, I've seen neat tricks where a drop of Stabilant restored function to a corroded connection, but it's best to do it right and clean 'em up. No chance you'll get this stuff at Crappy Tire.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

did you get it runnin yet, i had that same prob when my dash ammeter terminals burnt out, so i bypassed it....

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'72 Valiant DD for over a decade-225-Disc brakes, big T-bars, big Sway bars f/r, carter bbd/super six, GM HEI, 2- 12" subs in trunk, 1000w amp...
'77 cherokee cheif widetrack-360-33x12.5 tires-no lift. keeps driveway dry-project/backup DD/mudder

Oh yea It runs now.

Funny thing how much easer it is to mess with these old heaps in the daylight, and temps. in the mid forties as opposed to the thing sitting on a car carrier at 20 deg. in the dark...

What happened is, as I was attempting to locate the fuse block, vaguely remembering back to the early seventies when I had a 270, 273 V8, that the block was located somewhere near the drivers left leg. Once I got my head up under the dash, no small feat these days, I discovered a massive rats nest of wire, a crappy speaker screwed to the kick panel all of which was obscuring my beloved fuse block. The old noggin is apparently still functioning, all be it at a reduced capacity. I just don't have xray vision any more.

While pawing in that mess, with the key in the Acc. position, with the hope of hearing some electrical device energize, something made contact, and the radio fires up, thus reducing the magnitude of the search zone to the rat's nest. At the same time a black box labeled 'Viper Alarm' sprouting a dozen wires dropped down in my face, a sign from the automobile Gods that the fix was near. I than began cutting that puppy out one bloody wire at a time.

The juice went through several on-off cycles during the surgery as I continued to snip away. also there were remnants of other wiring projects archived under that dash snaking the length of the car which also got the dikes taken to them.

By the time I finished, I had filled one third of a kitchen trash bag with wire, horns, relays, striped electrical tape, and cable ties.

The glitch is still there so my next effort will to be to clean connections in the Bulkhead disconnect. An other spot that I want to check is the Ignition Ballast, as that has a suspect brown wire ( Q ) that has been spliced and runs from the ballast to the ignition switch. Man, having a wiring diagram sure helps.

Funny how folks (myself in my teens) will just grab a "hot" wire and tap it for a stereo etc. Too many stories of underdash fires ruining cars to not be more careful.

I have no idea what the plans are for this car, but I would like to offer one comment of advice. My Duster had several problems with wiring, shorts, and just a cluster of messed up stereo wiring. My buddies Nova had shorts due to wiring and somebody ripping out the CD deck before the sale. Last the Challenger is getting A/C, stereo, and new digital guages this spring break.
What am I getting too? I've used the painless kits on three rigs already and the Challenger will be the fourth. There are a little bit of money, but they seem to solve ALL of the gremlins I've seen in the first two cars. Lots of people fear wiring I know I did. However, the Duster took 4 days and the car was running, the No-go took 18 hard hours, the 49' GMC took two days. I guess my point is they are simple if you have any wiring skills whatsoever I got my kit a while back when they were cheaper, and I've found better ones than Painless, so if this is a route I will get yout a link to the "other brand". All in all I hope you enjoy your new treasure!
(Painless should pay me commison as I've convinced about 6 car owners to do this, I'm sure the check is on the way.)

I have reviewed the new harness idea, too costly for this Dart. The wire is in good shape in this car with the exception of previous splices. All I have to do is find all the taped up messes and fix them correctly.

I can solder and shrink wrap all splices, and make up new spade connections or other types to make weather tight, and vibration resent connections where needed. No big deal

Today I did find two spots I belive to be causing the intermintent electrical failures. One was a crappy splice of the "Q" wire, and a burnt spade connector at "Z" in the bulkhead Disconnect. Year One has the correct spade for this location.

Now a quick question: Where is a good place to terminate the conductor that feeds the electric choke heater on the old Holly 4bl. I realise that it has to be something that is only energized when the ignition switch is on.

The knuckle head that hooked it up previously tied into a direct battery feed in the stop light circuit in the fuse block. I had a nice warm choke all night, and a rather low battery after hooking up the taped up disconnected leads yesterday...

The guy I purchased the car from, not the afore mentioned knuckle head, said she was a cold blooded "rhymes with itch'. Gee I wonder why... The adjustable disk controling amount of richness had been turned as far to lean as possible, disallowing the choke to close when cold. And, we have a lot of cold around here in Maine.

Gotta disagree. Yes, a Painless Wiring kit can solve IPO problems (Idiot Previous Owner) related to hacked wiring, but Painless' stuff isn't anywhere near as good as it used to be. Smaller wire gauges, quality components replaced with no-name Chinese junk, and all the time the price keeps going up. No thanks, I rather use one of the various options for reproduction original-type harnesses or repair it myself.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

this happened to my dads car for him it was the alternator guage the stock one has all of the power running through it and it can go bad and there will be no power

Too many wiring problems to list. All I did was rewire 40% of the engine compart & dash. Replaced all the brass connectors, repair the circuit board feeding the gages, and add a few relays to run the convertible top.

All the gages were A-OK, and when wired up properly worked perfectly. The only electrical items left to do is to replace the turn signal switch, and install the factory radio that is being refurbished in NY.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC