When I went to drive home, the Dart would not turn over. No noise, no click, no nothing.

But, the battery appeared to have life. I did not have a VOM with me, so I just wiggled the yellow wire at the starter relay, and tightened the battery cable.

Boom, it started right up. So did either of my magic tricks do something, or has the starter switch started to act up? It is 41 years old after all. The starter switch turns on some of the dash power, and energizes the starter relay. Beyond that , all it's functions have been bypassed by other switches and relays under the hood. But, could this starter realy have malfunctioned, and then come back to life? Or could tighening the battery cable have actually brought the starter relay to life?

I am thinking of wiring a starter button in some where under the dash. I will feel vulnerable driving this car if I don't do something to protect myself against becoming stranded out on the road somewhere.

Sam

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Yellow wire on the relay goes to the ignition switch - if that was loose it won't click because the relay will never be energized.

You don't need to wire up anything to avoid being stranded - just get a hefty screwdriver or your choice of long skinny metallic rod. You can use it to either short both terminals of the starter, or the two bigger terminals of the relay itself. Just watch that you don't strike ground anywhere.

Slightly more elegant solution - Sunpro and other brands also make a pistol grip like switch with two leads and alligator clips on them. Primarily made for bumping engine over while doing valve adjustments. Remove yellow wire and put one lead there, put other on positive battery and can use it to crank. Or if the relay itself is hosed you can put a lead to each of the bigger relay terminals.

Can't say for sure if it was loose. I just wiggled it thinking maybe the contact was iffy. Maybe it was. How often do these ignition switches fail on these old cars? Since starting the car requires flipping two unmarked switches, one for the ECU and one for the MSD, I could likely safely install a push button start switch. I never drive this car anywhere anymore that theft would be a concern.

Sam

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Wiggling wires can be a source for electrical faults. The other day I spent some hours roadside trying to fix a problem like yours, the only difference is that I was driving when suddenly nothing happened anymore, and then the same as your problem: No reaction when trying to start again. It turned out that when mounting my HEI setup, I also checked all visible wires, and it seems I accidentily almost broke two 'fusible links' at the solder, vibrations took care of the rest and everything ignition stopped. I am going to change all my fusible links to fuses, the spade type fuses are now available as resetable ones. The critical heavy amp ones wiil be maxi-fuses, they have some blow-time delay built in, but they are a little on the big side, starting at 30 amps.
Moral is - no wigglig without carrying spare wires and fuses!

Olaf

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Aspenized

Maybe I should replace the yellow wire with new? Almost all the wire under the hood is new, except perhaps that one. It is about the only wire that still runs its original path.

Sam

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Sam sometimes I spook people out by holding the key mid air and pointing to the engine still running I also thought about installing a push button switch just to make it all modern car like.

Mine ended up that way by accident. There is some kind of feedback loop to the ECU that kept it running when I turned the key off. Rather than track it down, I installed a switch on the MSD to shut it down. It stays running until I flip that down.

None of the switches on the dash are labeled, mostly as theft deterrent. Only problem is, at my age, I may forget how to start my own car. I did forget I had wired the fan to come on with the AC. I even forgot which dash switch was for the AC. It was one of those boo/yeay stories when I set out to wire the fan so it would come on with the AC, and discovered to my surprise I had already done it. Sheesh.

Sam

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Sam, you are sure it's your car you're working on??
Buying stuff is worst: Oh, that's a handy gadget, I might need one of those!
Hmm, kinda look familiar, better take a look in the toolbox, oops...

Olaf

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Aspenized

I am not certain. Maybe it is my lawn and garden tractor. They both have steering wheels.

Sam

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9/10 of the time when this happens, it's a loose/dirty battery terminal. It seems like you have localized it to those two sources, though. I thought you replaced that flaky ign switch earlier??

Cheers,

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

With my flaky memory, who knows for sure? I think this is the original in the '69. But by now, so much has been replaced or upgraded, I guess nothing can be assumed. I did replace the switch in the '70. You might be remembering that. But at your age your memory is at least 25 years fresher than mine.

The battery connection is gold plated, (really) but the cable is held on with a gold plated thumb screw. This was my poor man's quick disconnect. Maybe I should replace it with a nut and washer so I can crank down on it harder. During the failed start, I just reached in the truck and twisted it with my bare hand. After hearing your thoughts, I am thinking the battery cable was the culprit.

Sam

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