225 Slant 6 wiring issue

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customslotcars

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Okay, I went out today to my 1964 dart, a 225 slant 6. she cranked and wanted to run, but would not. Getting gas fine so i figured electric. I disc. the batt. and ran a lead from the + term of batt to + term of coil reconnected the batt and she fired right over and ran. My guess was ignition relay. went to napa, picked one up. I removed and reinstalled the relay and the second i reconnected the batt the wire between the hot power post from the starter to the ignition relay started on fire. I yanked the + term of the batt. reinstalled the old relay and tried to "hotwire" her again and nothing. I am guessing i toasted the battery for one but any ideas why the wire would burn up??? Bad relay??? any help would be wonderful!

PJ
 
There is no ignition relay, only a starter relay. You may have an open coil ballast resistor which is really common on early mopars. The purpose of the resistor is to drop voltage at the coil while in the "run" mode so you don't burn up the coil. Basically it's a resistor in series with the coil which drops about 3 volts so the net result is about 9 volts at the coil while the car is running. In the "start" mode the resistor is bypassed so the coil gets full voltage and thus full or hotter spark.

I am not sure what relay you are having problems with but something sounds fishy from your explanation.
 
If it tried to run when you had the key in the 'Start' postion but will not run in the Run position AND it will run when direct wired to 12 volts.......
..................................your ballast resistor is bad.

Always carry a spare. And running 12 volts constantly thru the points will burn them up very quickly. Sorta like running 240 volts thru your TV.
 

i ordered new ballast resistor, points, condenser, coil, volt reg, starter relay. starter solenoid, i bet one will fix it, and most of the parts are old, real old. also found some wires with cracked missing insulation I have to replace.

What gauge wire should i use?????

Bought the car for $1000 and this "old school" set up is new to me. Thanks for understanding what i meant when i said ignition relay instead of starter relay.

pj
 
The gauge depends on the wire's function. It pays to get a wiring diagram - they'll list the gauges used on all the factory wiring.
 
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