1966 Dodge Dart
Its been a long time since I last posted but ive been out working on the car every chance I get. Ive made some progress but its not as visible as past progress has been. Ive decided to hide as many wires from view as I could to make the engine compartment look cleaner. So Ive read so many posts about what others have done to move the battery to the trunk and to change the wiring to a heavier gauge. I beat myself up for quite a few weeks trying to get all the answers. I ended up buying stuff I didnt end up using but in the end I went with a 4 post battery cutoff switch, I decided to keep the original style starter relay. Its complicated but its similar to the stock wiring. My worst nightmare was that I decided not to take any wires out thru the original bulk head. Instead I put a piece of aluminum in its place to block it off while looking good. If I knew I was heading in this direction at first I could have just added metal and welded the hole in the firewall shut but i wasnt planning on doing most of the things I have done. Guess its just what you would call winging it as I go. Ive mounted all electrical components that were out under hood such as regulator, coil, ignition box, starter relay, Continous duty solenoid, to under the dash. Of course this means custom wiring to and from each component which I find to be a slow process in making and adding. Laying under the dash at my size and age is a challenge! I also had to add in the trunk cutoff switch and fuel pump relay then run the wiring from cutoff switch to front of car. Since I usually work alone its taken quite a while to climb in and out and get this completed. I am finally down to wiring in the ignition box before I can attempt to start the engine. Hoping that to be this next weekend. Cant wait to hear it running. Once its running I will still need to run the wires for the parking/turn signals, horn, then add headlight relay kit, electric fan relay, and Im sure a few I havent figured out yet. Here are some of the dumb stuff thats happened to me lately with this thing. I got excited last weekend thinking I would get far enough with wiring that i could start it so I added oil to the engine. Then I started with making wires and heater hoses. Then thought i would prime the oil pump, hit the drill to turn shaft and after about 5 seconds you could feel the pressure, about that time I see a gusher straight out of oil switch hole. Yep I forgot to put the oil gauge line on. cleaned up that mess then thought i better fill the trans so when I start it i wont forget to have fluid in. Added 6 qts and all looks good. Put car up in air to work on fuel pump relay wires and see trans fluid running to the ground. Throw a pan under it and check whats leaking only to find when the trans was rebuilt they didnt put a neutral safety switch in. Cleaned that mess up! Now thats another issue since I could only find a switch for 67 and newer and they all have 3 prongs coming from them and my original switch had only the ground for neutral and park. So Ill need to figure out which way those switches are wired. Here are a few pics from the recent work. The first pic shows the ignition box and regulator just above it. Since then Ive added my continous duty solenoid just above the regulator. The second pic shows the coil mounted just below the wiper motor and the third shows the starter relay mounted just above the steering column area. Also in the third pic is the stud that will carry power to the front of the car. This helps me from using the distribution block.
Its been a long time since I last posted but ive been out working on the car every chance I get. Ive made some progress but its not as visible as past progress has been. Ive decided to hide as many wires from view as I could to make the engine compartment look cleaner. So Ive read so many posts about what others have done to move the battery to the trunk and to change the wiring to a heavier gauge. I beat myself up for quite a few weeks trying to get all the answers. I ended up buying stuff I didnt end up using but in the end I went with a 4 post battery cutoff switch, I decided to keep the original style starter relay. Its complicated but its similar to the stock wiring. My worst nightmare was that I decided not to take any wires out thru the original bulk head. Instead I put a piece of aluminum in its place to block it off while looking good. If I knew I was heading in this direction at first I could have just added metal and welded the hole in the firewall shut but i wasnt planning on doing most of the things I have done. Guess its just what you would call winging it as I go. Ive mounted all electrical components that were out under hood such as regulator, coil, ignition box, starter relay, Continous duty solenoid, to under the dash. Of course this means custom wiring to and from each component which I find to be a slow process in making and adding. Laying under the dash at my size and age is a challenge! I also had to add in the trunk cutoff switch and fuel pump relay then run the wiring from cutoff switch to front of car. Since I usually work alone its taken quite a while to climb in and out and get this completed. I am finally down to wiring in the ignition box before I can attempt to start the engine. Hoping that to be this next weekend. Cant wait to hear it running. Once its running I will still need to run the wires for the parking/turn signals, horn, then add headlight relay kit, electric fan relay, and Im sure a few I havent figured out yet. Here are some of the dumb stuff thats happened to me lately with this thing. I got excited last weekend thinking I would get far enough with wiring that i could start it so I added oil to the engine. Then I started with making wires and heater hoses. Then thought i would prime the oil pump, hit the drill to turn shaft and after about 5 seconds you could feel the pressure, about that time I see a gusher straight out of oil switch hole. Yep I forgot to put the oil gauge line on. cleaned up that mess then thought i better fill the trans so when I start it i wont forget to have fluid in. Added 6 qts and all looks good. Put car up in air to work on fuel pump relay wires and see trans fluid running to the ground. Throw a pan under it and check whats leaking only to find when the trans was rebuilt they didnt put a neutral safety switch in. Cleaned that mess up! Now thats another issue since I could only find a switch for 67 and newer and they all have 3 prongs coming from them and my original switch had only the ground for neutral and park. So Ill need to figure out which way those switches are wired. Here are a few pics from the recent work. The first pic shows the ignition box and regulator just above it. Since then Ive added my continous duty solenoid just above the regulator. The second pic shows the coil mounted just below the wiper motor and the third shows the starter relay mounted just above the steering column area. Also in the third pic is the stud that will carry power to the front of the car. This helps me from using the distribution block.