electrical problems!!

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bmaudlin

bmaudlin

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Installed new bulbs and holders into the rally dash on my 70 Dart.....installed the dash back into dash frame, turned on the lights and I seem to only have some dash lights around the speedometer, not the tach or other gauges. All grounds seem to be in place and I can't believe I have that many bad bulbs or bulb holders! Any suggestions?

Also attempting to start the vehicle with an aftermarket electronic ignition. I seem to have spark when the key is turned on.....there is a spark when the coil wire is grounded as the key is turned on, but no spark when the starter is engaged. Have checked all the wiring and it seems wired correctly. One other note.....when cranking the tach needle seems to be going to the negative side of the gauge! Again the tach wiring seems to be connected correctly.

I know a lot to ask without seeing, but any possible suggestions or helps would be appreciated. Thanks, Ben.
 
Mine did the same. Flipped the bulb in the socket a 1/2 turn and fixed it
 
dash prob. sounds like ground problem...check and double check. what kind of aftermarket ign. system? Make sure you have both wires that originally hooked to ballast tied into the 12+ on your aftermarket ign.
 
The ignition is a "Pro form" system. I have the blue wire with the yellow tracer wired into the main 12v feed to the ballast resistor. The blue wire with a companion brown wire on the other end of the ballast resistor attaches (the blue wire) to the positive side of the coil. The black/yellow wire from the control module attaches to the negative side of the coil along with the tach lead. Only wire left is a green one which I was told to disregard. Other two wires are the plug feed to the distributor. I thought maybe I was supposed to disregard the OEM wiring from the resistor to the + coil, but when I ran a separate wire it made no difference. Almost makes me want to throw a point distributor in it! Ben.
 
There are 8 bulbs. 4 are indicater bulbs located nearest the center pod. 4 bulbs a for illumiation. They are in 2 seperate boards. If the 2 illunimation bulbs work on one board and not the other, the problem could be in the wire or contact pin on that board. It is a orange wire if that helps.
 
will check that particular wire. I do not have any indicator bulbs,(hi beam, brake, or either turn signal), as well as the illumination bulbs, right of the speedometer. Ben.
 
bmaudlin said:
will check that particular wire. I do not have any indicator bulbs,(hi beam, brake, or either turn signal), as well as the illumination bulbs, right of the speedometer. Ben.
Click to expand...

If none of those work you do have problems. They are all on seperate circuits. Could be lack of chassis ground I guess. The park brake lamp has a 12 volt supply that is grounded only at the switch on the park brake mechanism so that one should work even if the panel isn't properly grounded.
Just for the sake of asking... is the round harness connector on the back of the panel original and not been messed with ?
Those wires have been put in the wrong places before when someone misread the wiring diagrams.
 
Has not been messed with that I can tell?! Had the gauges and cluster boards cleaned and rebuilt by a co. in California.... everything looks okay. Ben.
 
I just dont know then. Maybe pics would help. It would take a whole lot of paint to block all of the ground paths although pitiful they be. If the ground strap at the firewall to engine block is missing, chassis ground is incomplete. I'm clutching at straws here. A lot more details about the work that has been done to the inst' panel and the car itself might help as much as pics.
 
Another question... Do the turn signals outside the car work ?
 
I had same problem i used fine sand paper and cleaned the contact surface area around each blub even took the ground screws out and cleaned them,
once this was complete all lights worked turn signals operated and all dash light up.
there was alot of oxidation surrounding the contacts for the bulbs.
 
As much as I don't want to, I'm going to pull the instrument panel back out of the car and do what I should have done before originally installing it......check all of the bulbs and circuits with a 12v power source while out of the car! You would think with rebuilt gauges and circuit boards, new bulbs and bulb holders there would be no problems, but as with all things electrical testing before assembly seems to be the smart thing to do! Now if I can figure out the 'no spark' problem while cranking, I may have this thing running today! Ben.
 
i would check the board with a 9v bat to see if all the lights work .then i would get a multi meter and check all the wires on the main round dash plug and work back from there. there are wireing diagrams on this site .thats if all the grounds are confirmed.another thing i ran into once before was that someone soldierd a pin on and a little blob of soldier was left on the pin on the backside of the board and it was grounding on the metal dash and a few of the dash lights would not work i could of caused a fire also.
 

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Thanks!! for your suggestions, will definitely make sure everything is correct before putting the cluster back in! Ben.

By the way......the problem with not starting came down to the new orange control module that came with the electronic ignition changeover. Put a new blue streak model in and it fired right up!!
 
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