65 Barracuda daily driver

[65barracudaLA]

I discovered that one of the studs that go into starter and hold the smaller wire is lose. Like the nut is firmly on the stud, but the stud is loose. I didn't think that there was something wrong with the starter, because it was cranking, but since I want to use that starter on the 318, I'll get a starter rebuild kit.

 

[65barracudaLA]

The lose contact on the mini starter worried me, so I took the starter out and found the old, clunky one at the far end of the garage on the floor and it looked crusty and not trustworthy, but I thought it was worth giving it a shot. Bolted that in, put the previous carburetor back, fixed some sketchy looking wiring and started the car. I forgot the whiny sound these old starters make, but it didi start! I let it warm up and turned it off. Then started it again and drove around the block for like 10 minutes, parked it in the driveway and turned it off. Then started it again and it worked. Gonna do some more testing before I take her on a freeway, but it actually looks like it might have been the starter.

 

[JDMopar]

I've got a mini starter that has the same problem with the small stud. I got it at a swap meet and didn't notice it until I already had it bolted in my Challenger. If you buy parts to fix yours, would you post the source here?

 

[65barracudaLA]

I've got a mini starter that has the same problem with the small stud. I got it at a swap meet and didn't notice it until I already had it bolted in my Challenger. If you buy parts to fix yours, would you post the source here?

I got the rebuild kit at rockauto, seemed the cheapest. Gonna keep the old starter in the car for now until those parts arrive.

 

[65barracudaLA]

DORMAN 02349

 

[JDMopar]

I tagged you in @RAT ROD AL for sale ad, in case you need early A exhaust manifolds.

 

[65barracudaLA]

I tagged you in @RAT ROD AL for sale ad, in case you need early A exhaust manifolds.

Thanks, I actually had the driver's side manifold for a while and about a month ago I found the passenger's side manifold at the Long Beach Swap meet. I think by now I have pretty much everything except the rest of the exhaust and the Sanden a/c bracket. With both I'm still going back and forth on which route to take.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Damn, so I had to go to a meeting about 25 miles from where I live and through L.A. morning traffic. The car was running pretty rough, but made it there. On the way home I stopped at a store close to where I live. And then the car wouldn't start again. Cranking, but not starting. From the past times this happened I learned that letting it sit for 20 minutes helps. So I set a timer and after 20 minutes it started again. So, still no idea why this is happening. Just to see if it's the carb, I ordered a BBD from Amazon for 69 bucks! When I took it out of the box, metal shavings were falling out of the carburetor. I'm glad I notices that and didn't install it. I thought it was worth a shot, but nope, haha. Still need to figure out what the problem is. New ideas are maybe the vacuum that goes to the A/C or the ground of the ECU?! It really sucks, because even though I wanna swap the 318 in soon, I still need the car to get around until then, but I don't want to spend much time or money on it.

 

[65barracudaLA]

The problem still persists. I checked for vacuum leaks and couldn't find any. I replaced all the plugs on the carb. When it's not starting, it's getting a good squirt at the carb when pulling on the throttle lever, but it evaporates before your eyes. When it does that I pulled a spark plug and they are dry, so flooding can't really be the problem. Thinking about making some sort of a heat shield, so the carb doesn't get so much heat from below.

I finally test fitted the pulleys on the 318 and unfortunately they don't line up 100% on the 318. The water pump pulley sticks out more by probably less than 1/16". Well, next weekend is the Mopar Spring Fling here in Southern California and I'll try my luck finding a matching pair.

I also started tearing apart that later model transmission and was able to pull out the part throttle kickdown!

Haven't been able to pull the input shaft yet, because I need a sliding hammer and the parts stores only have ones with a 5/8 thread and I need a 3/8-16. Harbor Freight has one for under 30 bucks (I got the trans for free...), but I went there today and they were closed for easter... Once I have the input shaft out, I can drop it off with the PTK and the '65 V8 A904 to get it rebuilt. To be continued...

 

[66fyssh]

I don't know what might have happened to the carb. How is the throttle shaft? They can wear and suck air.

 

[65barracudaLA]

So it turns out the problem was not the carb. I rebuilt the carb and my problem persists. I should have tested that first, but the problem is spark and not fuel. When the car won't start it's because there is no power to the coil. I swapped the coil with another one I had and no change. The wiring on this car is pretty bad and I will get a new harness for the V8. The car already has electronic ignition and electronic voltage regulator. I fixed more of the wiring and I still have that problem. I also noticed, and maybe that's new, that there was a little smoke coming from the bulkhead connector where the alternator output goes in. Now I'm worried the car might catch on fire. In November my old alternator went out. The parts store only had one in stock that was 65 amps instead of the 60 amp alternator that I had before that. Could that be the source of my problems? Again, the car typically starts with no issues when cold, but stalls sometimes when driving and won't start again for a while. Heat seems to be an issues, because it typically happens when it's hot outside or after driving for a while. I also added a tach since then, but I doubt that should affect anything. There are quite a few accessories coming off the the starter relay. Could that be an issue? Anyways, I'm at a loss and quite frustrated. Any ideas?

 

[65barracudaLA]

After reading up on it a bit and as I suspected the higher output of the alternator is problematic and so I will add two 10 gauge wires with two 50a fuses from the alternator to the battery as suggested by SlantSixDan. Not sure if that will solve the stalling/ starting problem, but it will at least make sure the car doesn't catch on fire...

 

[mpgmike]

What would change how it works when heated? What would get hot with normal driving?

Ballast resistor
Ignition coil
Fragile/corroded connections; bulkhead connector, terminals, other connections(?)

Maybe this at least gives you ideas where to look.

 

[JDMopar]

Check the bulkhead connector, especially the big wire from the alternator that goes thru the bulkhead to the amp gauge. It is probably getting hot, losing connection when the heat expands the terminal, and losing power. When it cools back off, the connection remakes itself and it will start again. I had a 73 Challenger that did that. I just cut the wires on either side of the bulkhead connector, pulled the burnt connectors out of the hole and ran a piece of 10-gauge wire thru the hole and spliced it with butt connectors until I could get a soldering gun to fix it. That stopped the problem, so hopefully it will for you. A little temporary repair like that won't hurt a thing since it's your daily driver. I know it's frustrating, so hang in there and good luck to you.

 

[65barracudaLA]

It looks like it's the bulkhead connector - thankfully it was sending me smoke signals, haha. It melted a bit of the plastic and when I took it apart, the connection was loose and a bit corroded. I'm waiting on some fuses and I'm going to run two 10 gauge wires from the alternator to the battery with 50a fuses on each end of each wire. As far as I understand this will take the majority of the current away from the bulkhead connector.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Thanks for your help as always! Now I have put a wire through the bulkhead connector. The connector had stripped threads and couldn't provide a good connection. I also added the 2 wires with fuses from the alternator to the battery as mentioned above. Then I double checked everything and started the car. I had the fire extinguisher ready - just in case... Everything seemed fine. I had read something about overcharging and so I went ahead and check the voltage at the battery. 17-18 volts!!! Luckily I still had a spare voltage regulator somewhere. Not new, but good enough to test if something would change. It did, and now it's at around the voltage at battery at idle is 15 volts. Still on the higher side as I read, but certainly an improvement. I should get new one - are they all the same or are they specific to the alternator or something? Anyhow, I haven't test driven the car yet, but I will do that right now. Fingers crossed that this solved the issues that I've been having.

 

[mpgmike]

You might want to run an additional ground wire from battery negative to the alternator case, and from battery negative to the voltage regulator housing. It's sure sounding like a ground issue to me.

 

[65barracudaLA]

You might want to run an additional ground wire from battery negative to the alternator case, and from battery negative to the voltage regulator housing. It's sure sounding like a ground issue to me.

Just went on a test drive and the car stalled again after driving on the freeway. I was so confident that I had figured it out... I noticed the ECU screws don't grip very well - that might be very likely culprit and I will get the next size self-tapping screws. I just cleaned the connection from the battery to the engine block. I will replace the ground strap from the engine block to the fire wall and clean up the bolt and run ground wires to alt and voltage regulator. This is driving me crazy. I still don't understand why it would start when cold, but not when hot. I think I remember that electricity flows better the cooler the temperature - could that be it?

 

[65barracudaLA]

Anyways, I had enough of dealing with that, but went and got a new ground strap and cleaned the old one and the screws and bolts. Then I started taking apart and cleaning my mini starter. That rebuild kit is good for the brushes, but not much else. The nuts provided in the kit are too big and the one of the bolts is shorter than the original one. I couldn't find any good photos or directions online, so if someone else is doing this, I hope this helps.

The shorter bolt came in handy for the relocation adapter thing. The smaller stud however is too long to get the cover (in the photo sitting on top of the starter behind) on there. I might cut it off with a dremel. On the other hand, I guess the cover might not be 100% necessary.

Here you can see the original bolts. The taller one goes on the battery side. I hope not having the those grooves on the bottom will not cause any issues.

Now I'm gonna see if a better ground is going to fix my stalling/ non-starting issue...

 

[Slantsix64]

I would swap the pig tail that goes on the Ecu sometimes the connection is crap.

Anyways, I had enough of dealing with that, but went and got a new ground strap and cleaned the old one and the screws and bolts. Then I started taking apart and cleaning my mini starter. That rebuild kit is good for the brushes, but not much else. The nuts provided in the kit are too big and the one of the bolts is shorter than the original one. I couldn't find any good photos or directions online, so if someone else is doing this, I hope this helps.

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The shorter bolt came in handy for the relocation adapter thing. The smaller stud however is too long to get the cover (in the photo sitting on top of the starter behind) on there. I might cut it off with a dremel. On the other hand, I guess the cover might not be 100% necessary.

View attachment 1715927161

Here you can see the original bolts. The taller one goes on the battery side. I hope not having the those grooves on the bottom will not cause any issues.

Now I'm gonna see if a better ground is going to fix my stalling/ non-starting issue...

 

[mpgmike]

Agreed. Installed some Tractor Supply lights on a farm tractor and one of the connectors was junk out of the box. Had to cut it out and wire a bypass. Never discount the ability of a good looking connector to cause trouble.

 

[65barracudaLA]

I would swap the pig tail that goes on the Ecu sometimes the connection is crap.

Good point! I just ordered a new one. I was going to replace it anyways when I'm swapping in the 318.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Got a new starter relay and yet another ballast resistor. Cleaned more connections, checked and cleaned the distributor cap and rotor. Got a new 14GA fusible link to match the 65 amp alternator (was 16 GA before). It's still stalling when hot and then not starting. This sucks. I took a multimeter and tested a few spots. I get 12+ volts at the starter relay, about 10 volts at one side of the ballast and eightish on the other. Less than 6 volts at the coil with the ignition on. I'm still waiting for the new ECU plug. Probably won't be here until the end of the week.

 

[mpgmike]

You should have battery voltage to the one side of the ballast resistor. You have 12+ volts to the starter relay, that is apparently your battery voltage. What is corroded or loose that is only delivering 10 volts to the ballast? Next, the output from the ballast resistor should be wired directly to the "+" side of the ignition coil. You have ~8 volts out of the ballast, but <6 volts at the coil. You have poor connections!

 

[65barracudaLA]

You should have battery voltage to the one side of the ballast resistor. You have 12+ volts to the starter relay, that is apparently your battery voltage. What is corroded or loose that is only delivering 10 volts to the ballast? Next, the output from the ballast resistor should be wired directly to the "+" side of the ignition coil. You have ~8 volts out of the ballast, but <6 volts at the coil. You have poor connections!

I guess it's time to rewire everything and solder every connection. I was hoping to do that once the V8 is in. I have the necessary wiring diagrams, but they only tell me the colors and not the gauges of the wires. I've searched, but haven't found that info. Any idea where I can find that?