Dash Gremlins - Electrical

I need some guidance on trying to fix this pesky issue:

This issue started up this year and I have been trying to figure it out all summer. Everything thing is fine with the electricals when the lights are off, but when they come on things start to go weird. I first noticed this driving in the rain. The head lights were turned on and the dash turn signal indicators started to glow, but the fender mounted ones did not. The temp gauge and the fuel gauge started to move to the right (as if the gauges were being grounded) and the dash lights also dimmed. The ammeter showed a larger than normal state of discharge but would go into the charging side of things when moving. At first I thought this only happened when the car got wet, but everytime I took it out this summer at night and the head lights were on the temp gauge would read like the car is over heating (this car NEVER runs hot), some times the gas gauge would move, sometimes it wouldnt. The dash turn signal indicators would glow on and off without the fender mounted ones following the same pattern. and the dash lights would go dim with the ammeter showing a slight discharge.

One of the frustrating things is I could never replicate this situation when sitting in the driveway... so my time to diagnose this situation has been less than optimal.

This only started happening this year. Last summer I did not have this issue.

The changes to the electrical system I have made since I got the car on the road in 2008 and verified working great last year are as follows:
Electronic Choke
LED tail lights (selected by slantsixdan)
LED compatible flasher (selected by slant six dan)
HELLA H4 conversion front lights (selected by slantsixdan)
headlight relay harness (cracklebacks)
electronic voltage regular from yearone

The things I have done to see if they contributed to this issue:
unplugged the turn signal flasher - no help
disconnected the turn signal switch - no help
removed the fuses from the relay harness, connected the headlights back to the car harness - no help
replaced the headlight switch with one from autozone (slantsixdan said to get an NOS or NOS style one, but I have not been able to find one, so I went to autozone) - no help
inspected the harness under the dash and under the hood - no missing insulation I could see

I talked to slantsixdan and crackleback about this issue. They gave me some ideas that I tried and nothing seemed to help.

One thing I did notice last night (this is with the relay harness disconnected) is that the gauges and dash lights would go through what is described above for the first 5-10 minutes of driving but then everything would settle out and go back to normal. I may try to hook up that harness again to see if the same thing happens. But this almost sounds like something is not right with the system, but once it is heated up things go back to how they should be.

anyone have any ideas on what or how I can check something to try and get this problem resolved?

another thing I forgot about (this happened with the head light relay harness connected and not connected)(but the instance below is with the harness not connected):

I drove the car with the lights on to where I was going last night. I was at that location for about an hour and 30 minutes got back in the car started it up and turned the head light switch one click out to the parking lights. From the car it appeared the parking lights were on but the high beam indicator was on as well as the dash turn signal indicators. The fender mounted indicators were not on. Turned the lights off than turned on the head lights and everything worked fine after that.

Just a thought...

If you have a bad connection in the bulkhead connector it will generate heat. Heat makes metal grow(so to speak) which might make the connection better explaining some of your symptoms.

But my first thought was bad grounds, crossed wires.

67 dart has a factory known wiring irregularity,

1. with the key out of the ignition
2. Turn on radio (no sound)
3. Turn in flashers
4. Press brake pedal
5. Listen to radio

Some how the power gets bypassed around the ignition switch,

This type of back feed could explain the bulb glowing dim

interesting... I guess I never mentioned which vehicle this is for. But it is a 68 Dart Convertible with the slant six.

I can check the bulkhead connector, but why would all of a sudden the bulkhead connector get a bad connection within a couple months? I did not touch any of those connections last year or this year. The only storage difference between this past winter and other winters is this past one I had the car stored at my house here in pittsburgh PA and the winters before were spent in a barn back in lancaster PA. Both have the same climate during the winter. I dont believe the temp difference in the storage area (if any) would affect the bulkhead connector... would it?

carfreak6970 said:

interesting... I guess I never mentioned which vehicle this is for. But it is a 68 Dart Convertible with the slant six.

I can check the bulkhead connector, but why would all of a sudden the bulkhead connector get a bad connection within a couple months?

Click to expand...

For the same reason my old Fiat lights and gauges were whacked out until I drove it again for a bit.
Crappy connections, and I totally agree that your issue's sound like connections.
Especially grounds.
I have put quite a few dedicated grounds to my light housing sockets just because of issue's like you are having.

Some I grounded right to the bulb sockets because the ground path from the socket to the light housing was junk.
Corrosion gets built up between the two metals (pot metal and the steel or tin sockets.

TrailBeast said:

For the same reason my old Fiat lights and gauges were whacked out until I drove it again for a bit.
Crappy connections, and I totally agree that your issue's sound like connections.
Especially grounds.
I have put quite a few dedicated grounds to my light housing sockets just because of issue's like you are having.

Some I grounded right to the bulb sockets because the ground path from the socket to the light housing was junk.
Corrosion gets built up between the two metals (pot metal and the steel or tin sockets.

Click to expand...

corrosion at the connections... interesting... that makes a little more sense... okay so I guess I have two things to do/check:

ensure all connections are good at the bulk head connector-maybe disconnect the connections, put dia-electric grease on them, reconnect it all and make sure all the pins are pushed in.

Make a ground from the dash to the body somewhere.

Agree on the ground issue. Whenever really strange things are happening that make no sense, it is usually a ground.

carfreak6970 said:

but why would all of a sudden the bulkhead connector get a bad connection within a couple months

Click to expand...

Why does a light bulb just burn out?

Sometimes the warning is not noticed. Or not there

This past weekend I was finally able to do the things mentioned in this thread. and now everything works! I applied pressure to the back of all the wire connections in the bulkhead connector from both sides. I also created a "grounding" harness. Basically made a wire that went to a couple of the mounting screws for the circuit boards and grounded it to a spot on the dash and took it for a drive Friday night. Worked like it should!

thank you all for your help!

Glad ya got it solved! Im so tempted to remove the bulkhead connectors altogether on our 67. I got so frustrated with an electrical issue that the car sat this year.
Congrats!

4spdragtop said:

Glad ya got it solved! Im so tempted to remove the bulkhead connectors altogether on our 67. I got so frustrated with an electrical issue that the car sat this year.
Congrats!

Click to expand...

Yea I hear not so many good things about that connection. I know they make replacement harnesses and one of these days I am going to get new harnesses for this car. Went that route in the charger and the GTS.