My friend is looking at this 66 Dodge Polara 4dr with a 318. We went to start it, and we got no power to anything. We swapped in a good batt, and still no power. No lights, sounds, etc. The car is all stock with 60,000 supposed orig mi, and the owner said he had it running less than 3 months ago. Anyone know what might be going on?

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'74 Duster 225 Super Six w/904
14" Cragar SS wheels

Bad ammeter is a distinct possibility. If you have jumper cables handy and are very careful you can connect the Bat+ to the alternator's battery terminal and bypass the ammeter. Do not move the car while doing this. It's only a test.

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Joshua

also CLEAN the battery clamps and posts, and check for corrosion where the cables come into the clamps. check the other ends of those cables for corrosion and clean them up. lastly, check integrity of the fusible link coming out of the firewall connector.

if none of these work, get out your multimeter.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

Is it possible to start the car while doing this? If this works, what would I need to do to fix it?

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'74 Duster 225 Super Six w/904
14" Cragar SS wheels

If running a jumper from the alternator to the battery gets you lights and such then it's most likely a burned out ammeter. You can then bypass the ammeter by moving the wire off one ammeter post and connecting it to the other post and the other wire. I did this for Midi's pickup to get it back on the road. The real fix is a new ammeter and an external shunt to reduce the current flow through the ammeter.

Be careful! If you do this and there is a short somewhere in the car you could start an electrical fire. With everything in the car switched off and the doors closed there should be no load on the electrical system and therefore no arcing when the jumper is connected. If there is arcing you need to disconnect the jumper immediately and find the short.

Do check for a burned fusible link at the firewall bulkhead connector, but I've found that these older ammeters are sometimes more fragile than the fusible link.

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Joshua

Ok, so arc equals bad/complicated problem, no arc equals good/imple problem. Suppose that there is no arc, and still no power. What then?

Another question, how do you use a miltimeter?

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'74 Duster 225 Super Six w/904
14" Cragar SS wheels

Arcing is bad unless you're electrically welding.

No arcing simply means no short, light load, or no power.

A good multimeter will come with instructions, but there is no substitute for a working knowledge of electricity.

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Joshua

Thanks, I will try my luck when I get to see the car again tomm.

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'74 Duster 225 Super Six w/904
14" Cragar SS wheels

Ok, I tried the little jumper thing, and instead of an arc, it was more like a 4th of july show. It scared the crap outa me! I did manage to bring a test light, and the starter relay has power to it, but nothing else does.

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'74 Duster 225 Super Six w/904
14" Cragar SS wheels

Josh: My Dart pulled this same trick the day I dragged it home; power at the battery, no power to anything else. The problem was the #12 gage red wire ("Z" connection on the bulkhead connector) that the fusible link hooks to and feeds the ammeter, burned off inside the connector.

What I did was switch the ignition key to "ON" along with the radio and its volume turned up, and started wiggling wires under the dash and at the bulkhead connector until I heard noise from the radio. This won't work if the ammeter is cooked.

I always install a battery kill switch in these old cars. It makes working on them much easer, and one can sleep at night knowing when it is off, the car won't burn up. Wal-Mart has them for about $7, cheep insurance.

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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

Assuming you didn't ground the jumper to the alternator case it appears there is a serious short. That short likely took out the fusible link.

I'd pull the big wire off the alternator and check the voltage drop between the alternator case and the output terminal using the diode/continuity function of a good multimeter. Measured one direction (polarity wise) you should see about a 1.6V drop and infinity the other direction. If the voltage drop is near zero in both directions there are shorted diodes in the alternator.

You should also look around for burned or melted wires. Check everything under the hood and look up under the dash.

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Joshua

Hmm, I didn't think of that. I connected it, and noting happened for a second and then I bumped the wire and it started doing it. Maybe it grounded it to the alt. I didn't accidentaly screw somthing up did I?

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'74 Duster 225 Super Six w/904
14" Cragar SS wheels

If it shorted to the alternator case there is probably just a little cosmetic damage, but no functional damage. Try removing the big wire from the back of the alternator and connect the jumper between that wire and the battery + terminal.

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Joshua

Alright, Ill give that one a try.

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'74 Duster 225 Super Six w/904
14" Cragar SS wheels