Ignition Wiring Issue, please help.

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GupsTateS

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The car is a 1968 Dart, one of the previous owners did some fancy wiring and now you need to flip a switch to get power to the vehicle.

I want to be able to turn the key to the run position and have power and not have a separate switch. The car still cranks with the key once the "accessory" switch is flipped. The car will not turn off unless the key and switch are off however.

It looks like the accessory switch is connecting a hot (directly from the battery +) and the black wire that should have gone to the alternator indicator (it no longer does). The red wire that should be going to the alternator indicator and then to the accessory breaker is taped off.

If I hook the red and black back up to the alternator indicator, where does the red one go to get to the accessory circuit breaker? I couldn't find it anywhere. And do you think this will solve my issue? If not, is there another safe way to get this working right again?

Thanks!! I know this is a lot to read for one question.
 
If you could pick up the 68 maintenance manual it has the wiring diagrahams. That what I used for my 67 Dart. I had to re-wire some of the old stuff. You can find thaem on the internet.. a local dealer may even be able to get you one. They are really priceless.

DAve
 
I have the wiring diagrams found on mymopar(i think?), I was just wondering how the actual key switch works I guess.

What wires are connected to what when it's in run, and then in the start position. And what should my voltage readings be on the wires.
 
It's not entirely clear what you have there but I'll take a stab at it.

The fat red wire normally comes from the battery, through a fusible link at the firewall and goes to the ammeter. The fat black wire goes from the other side of the ammeter, feeds most of the fuses and also goes back through the firewall to the output post of the alternator. The ammeter is simply in series with these wires and measures current into or out of the battery. It sounds like they bypassed it entirely which is ok if it's done correctly.

I would check your add-on accessory switch to see if it's properly fused or has a fusible link in series with it. I can't imagine why they would add this unless there was another wiring problem or perhaps they had something hooked up which drew a ton of current. If it were mine I'd get rid of it.
 
by accessory breaker you mean fusible link ?
The power from the bat terminal on the altenater runs to the fusible link then into the dash to the amp gauge, out of the amp gauge and on to the ignition switch, etc.. etc..
If you suspect the amp gauge is bad you can put the red and black wires together on one post. Extra wires poked into battery terminals is one of my pet peaves. I hate to see that.
 
Thanks for the help everyone, I think this is just what I needed to get me going.

I too hate to see extra wires on the battery terminals.

I think I'm going to have a bigger problem once I get this taken care of, as the car won't start at all anymore. Cranks and cranks, and nothing. Every once in a while it will try and fire, but that's not very often.
 
GupsTateS said:
Thanks for the help everyone, I think this is just what I needed to get me going.

I too hate to see extra wires on the battery terminals.

I think I'm going to have a bigger problem once I get this taken care of, as the car won't start at all anymore. Cranks and cranks, and nothing. Every once in a while it will try and fire, but that's not very often.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a bad ballast resistor. You would get 1 spark every time you release the key.
 
I don't have a full understanding of the ballast resistor? why would it spark when I release the key?
 
because the start voltage to the coil isn't there but the run voltage is. The other way around would allow it to run as long as you hold start but the engine would stop when you release the key. Just put a jumper across the ballast resistor and try to start it.
 
So basically the car uses all 12V to start but once its up and going the ballast resistor drops it down to something around 6V? Is this close to the right idea?
 
GupsTateS said:
So basically the car uses all 12V to start but once its up and going the ballast resistor drops it down to something around 6V? Is this close to the right idea?
Click to expand...

Yeah,run is about 6.7 volts. If the 12 volts was continuous the coil would over heat. You can run it with the resistor bypassed for a short time though.
I've went 20 minutes drive to the part store with a jumper before.
 
I think this is what the previous owner had going on, and why the coil felt like a brick of fire after a quick trip around the block. I know they had a steady +12V to it. Would this do any damage to the Distrib or the Coil?
 
Sorry for asking so many questions, my first stabs at fixing a botched electrical system. I really appreciate all the help, learning a lot very quickly!!

Back to the original question too, I have found the red power lead behind the dash, it reads 12V when I connect it to the ground. When I connect it to the black lead it drops to 0V and I still don't get power to the car. When I attach the same black lead directly to the battery I get 12V and I get power to the car. Any thoughts on what might be wrong with the red power lead?
 
the fusible link under the hood at the bulkhead connecter is open.
 
Hmm, I'll have to close that connection then. Wow, the advice on here is really priceless, especially when I get to drive this again in...8 months. Gotta love NY winters.
 
I probably shouldn't state it's open without standing there with my meter on it. Was just my best guess. Good luck
 
True, I'll give it a check though. It's closer to anything I could think, which was nothing.
 
And it is SOLVED! Thanks for the help, would have gone crazy without it. Turned out the bulkhead connector in the engine compartment into the firewall wasn't fully seated. I think anyway, when I went to yank the fusible link apart it pulled out, I put it back on and it worked!
 
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