Hello from Aurora, IL! Bought a Duster with an ignition issue

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GoldDuster727

GoldDuster727

Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2024
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Location
Aurora, IL
Good day, all!

My name is Jake, and I’m from Aurora, IL. I’ve been into old cars all my life, and I’ve had a lot of them. I just picked up one that I intend to keep, a very nice 1973 Plymouth Gold Duster. This is my first Mopar, and I’ve already learned a lot about it, and I look forward to getting it running and learning more!

The story is my dad and I headed out to Davenport last Monday, bought the car, then it died on the way home. I had it towed home, so I’ve been trying to figure out what’s wrong in my garage, and I can take all the help I can get. Someone installed an in line fuse under the dash for the red ignition wire, and it keeps popping fuses in the on position. It will crank, but the car doesn’t fire. Also, the ignition module had fried, and a lot of the potting melted over the inner well. Whoa boy!

I’ve been reading this forum all week, and it’s awesome to see such a tight-knit community who really helps each other out! Thanks in advance for any insights or where to post this issue. I saw pictures are mandatory - not a problem!

Pleased to meet you all,

-Jake

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Hello Jake. Welcome to A-bodies.
Nice looking Duster! Sorry to hear it's ill.

Might be a good idea to post you baby's issue in the electrical/ignition forum.
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Electrical and Ignition

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Welcome to FABO, Jake from State...um I mean Aurora.:)
Nice Duster!!

Sounds like a short somewhere. Definitely post your issue in the Electrical forum. We have some guys who are very good at giving directions for troubleshooting Electrical issues in our old girls.
 
66fyssh said:
Welcome to FABO, Jake from State...um I mean Aurora.:)
Nice Duster!!

Sounds like a short somewhere. Definitely post your issue in the Electrical forum. We have some guys who are very good at giving directions for troubleshooting Electrical issues in our old girls.
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Lol glad to be here! Got my khakis on right now.

And yes, that’s something I’m going to be looking into tomorrow, seems like a short somewhere. And I have seen some very in-depth posts from members about troubleshooting procedures, I will absolutely be posting in that forum to get their thoughts.

Nice to meet you!
 
If it is popping fuses routinely, then start unhooking things until the fuse stops blowing. The melted ignition module is a good place to start. I also would try the coil and the voltage regulator.

Are any of the fuses in the fuse box blowing?

Are there other electrical modifications to the car?
 
Mike69cuda said:
If it is popping fuses routinely, then start unhooking things until the fuse stops blowing. The melted ignition module is a good place to start. I also would try the coil and the voltage regulator.

Are any of the fuses in the fuse box blowing?

Are there other electrical modifications to the car?
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Hey Mike, thanks for chiming in..

Great idea on unhooking things to try to narrow it down. I’ll give that a shot for sure.

No fuses in the box are blowing.. I did notice that none of the terminals are labeled, they’re only numbered, and only terminals 3 and 4 have power, I believe.. Not sure if that’s supposed to be that way or..?

No other modifications to the car that I know of, but I’m sure there’s a good chance I’ll find some tomfoolery in the wiring as I dig into it. The ignition disconnect (I think it’s called) broke at some point, and someone put spade connections on yellow, blue, black, and brown wires where they would’ve plugged into each other underneath steering column.
 
How big is the added fuse for the ignition? Could it be to small?

The reason I was asking about the regular car fuses is that the ignition power feeds some of them. The radio and heater fan and turn signals are supplied by fuses, so I would think that those fuses would blow if the short was with them.

There are some things like the voltage regulator and ignition module that are not covered by a car fuse. I would suspect those, but that is just a guess.
 
Mike69cuda said:
How big is the added fuse for the ignition? Could it be to small?

The reason I was asking about the regular car fuses is that the ignition power feeds some of them. The radio and heater fan and turn signals are supplied by fuses, so I would think that those fuses would blow if the short was with them.

There are some things like the voltage regulator and ignition module that are not covered by a car fuse. I would suspect those, but that is just a guess.
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That’s a really good point! As I’m still learning about this car, I wasn’t sure what accessories were even on fuses, so that’s great to know. And yes, I thought the same thing that the fuse was too small, but I found out that they had a 30a fuse in there, and it’s blowing those. Seems like an awful lot of draw to do that with nothing on and the key just in the on position.

What baffles me is that I test drove the car, starting it several times, and it made it about half an hour on the highway before I got a backfire and it wouldn’t crank/start. It’s almost like whatever the issue is finally got to its breaking point.

I did just pull the ballast resistor to have a look, and it’s pretty cracked-up on the back side. I have a new one coming in tomorrow (thanks, Amazon.. $8 bucks) as this one looks like it needs to be replaced regardless of whether this is the culprit or not.
 
Welcome! Nice ride! Hope you get to the bottom of the electrical problem soon so you can enjoy your car!
 
Hi Jake. Great to have you here. This is the Welcome Wagon, where members introduce themselves and tell us about their cars. You'll want to post your issue in the electrical part of the forum, so it will get the maximum number of views and help. Welcome aboard! ....and nice lookin Duster!
 
RustyRatRod said:
Hi Jake. Great to have you here. This is the Welcome Wagon, where members introduce themselves and tell us about their cars. You'll want to post your issue in the electrical part of the forum, so it will get the maximum number of views and help. Welcome aboard! ....and nice lookin Duster!
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Thank you all for the welcomes!!

And yes sir, I’m about to do that after I get some pictures so everyone can see what I’m dealing with. Thank you for the help!
 
Go to "My Mopar" and download a FSM, that will be a great help determining where the fuses are oriented in the panel. Great looking Duster.
 
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