65 Dart wiring push start

[Romulo Roderiques]

Hello y'all

Can someone point me the right direction. 65 Dart with 273 won't start. No crank. Has power. Battery is fine. I jump the starter and it fires up. The dash harness looks worn out. I would like to wire a push start button and call it a day. Can anyone give me the short version as to what what wires to hook it up to?

Thanks

 

[Professor Fate]

You'll still need to diagnose it- can't tell you which wires to tap into or where, since it may be those wires causing your issue. Tapping a button into bad wiring could cause a total meltdown.
I'm just spittin' in the wind, here; but I'd start with your starter relay.
With the ignition switch in "start", you should have power to the black/yellow wire terminal. If not, follow it back and clean it's connection at the bulkhead connector. If that doesn't get you power for "start", check your ignition switch and connections. Replace if you aren't getting power out of the switch's "start" terminal when key is turned to start position.
If you do have power at the black/yellow wire at the relay, then put the trans. in neutral, and check continuity of the small black wire at the relay to ground. Should be 0 or minimal ohms. This is for your neutral safety switch. If it's not grounding, it could be a fault in that wire or a bad/misadjusted NSS. The quick and dirty fix is simply to run a wire from that relay terminal to ground, bypassing the NSS circuit. Be aware that it will now start in any gear...
If you have power to the black/yellow wire in "start", and your NSS wire is grounding properly, then your starter relay is at fault. Replace it.
It sounds tougher than it is...

 

[Romulo Roderiques]

You'll still need to diagnose it- can't tell you which wires to tap into or where, since it may be those wires causing your issue. Tapping a button into bad wiring could cause a total meltdown.
I'm just spittin' in the wind, here; but I'd start with your starter relay.
With the ignition switch in "start", you should have power to the black/yellow wire terminal. If not, follow it back and clean it's connection at the bulkhead connector. If that doesn't get you power for "start", check your ignition switch and connections. Replace if you aren't getting power out of the switch's "start" terminal when key is turned to start position.
If you do have power at the black/yellow wire at the relay, then put the trans. in neutral, and check continuity of the small black wire at the relay to ground. Should be 0 or minimal ohms. This is for your neutral safety switch. If it's not grounding, it could be a fault in that wire or a bad/misadjusted NSS. The quick and dirty fix is simply to run a wire from that relay terminal to ground, bypassing the NSS circuit. Be aware that it will now start in any gear...
If you have power to the black/yellow wire in "start", and your NSS wire is grounding properly, then your starter relay is at fault. Replace it.
It sounds tougher than it is...

Is the starter relay under the dash?

 

[Professor Fate]

Is the starter relay under the dash?

It's under the hood, mounted on the firewall near the bulkhead connector.
Looks like this:

 

[67Dart273]

Hello y'all

Can someone point me the right direction. 65 Dart with 273 won't start. No crank. Has power. Battery is fine. I jump the starter and it fires up. The dash harness looks worn out. I would like to wire a push start button and call it a day. Can anyone give me the short version as to what what wires to hook it up to?

Thanks

Is this automatic or stick. If automatic, the neutral safety switch down on the left side of the transmission GROUNDS in park or neutral. This is connected to one of the small push-on "flag" terminals on the relay, which is the coil. The other flag leads (usually yellow) through the firewall to the ignition switch "start" terminal. Very very simple circuit. I would inspect the key switch and connector / terminals, and inspect the bulkhead connector, AFTER checking the NSS

Try wiggling the shifter which indicates a failing switch or out of adjustment or disconnect that wire at the relay and temporarily grounding it. CAUTION. Will start in ANY GEAR doing so

IF IT IS STICK and has an OEM starter relay, the one terminal is soldered to the case and the relay case MUST be grounded

Run over to MyMopar. You can download many years of service manuals, and 2 page aftermarket wiring diagrams over there

 

[Romulo Roderiques]

Is this automatic or stick. If automatic, the neutral safety switch down on the left side of the transmission GROUNDS in park or neutral. This is connected to one of the small push-on "flag" terminals on the relay, which is the coil. The other flag leads (usually yellow) through the firewall to the ignition switch "start" terminal. Very very simple circuit. I would inspect the key switch and connector / terminals, and inspect the bulkhead connector, AFTER checking the NSS

Try wiggling the shifter which indicates a failing switch or out of adjustment or disconnect that wire at the relay and temporarily grounding it. CAUTION. Will start in ANY GEAR doing so

IF IT IS STICK and has an OEM starter relay, the one terminal is soldered to the case and the relay case MUST be grounded

Run over to MyMopar. You can download many years of service manuals, and 2 page aftermarket wiring diagrams over there

Thanks

 

[Romulo Roderiques]

You'll still need to diagnose it- can't tell you which wires to tap into or where, since it may be those wires causing your issue. Tapping a button into bad wiring could cause a total meltdown.
I'm just spittin' in the wind, here; but I'd start with your starter relay.
With the ignition switch in "start", you should have power to the black/yellow wire terminal. If not, follow it back and clean it's connection at the bulkhead connector. If that doesn't get you power for "start", check your ignition switch and connections. Replace if you aren't getting power out of the switch's "start" terminal when key is turned to start position.
If you do have power at the black/yellow wire at the relay, then put the trans. in neutral, and check continuity of the small black wire at the relay to ground. Should be 0 or minimal ohms. This is for your neutral safety switch. If it's not grounding, it could be a fault in that wire or a bad/misadjusted NSS. The quick and dirty fix is simply to run a wire from that relay terminal to ground, bypassing the NSS circuit. Be aware that it will now start in any gear...
If you have power to the black/yellow wire in "start", and your NSS wire is grounding properly, then your starter relay is at fault. Replace it.
It sounds tougher than it is...

Thank you

 

[Mattax]

This is how the start sequence works with that relay.

A couple of terms first:
Voltage is excited electrons or potential power.
Current is electrons flowing. Those flowing electrons are represented by the orange arrows.

0. With the key off no current is flowing out of the battery.
1. When the key is turned to start current flows through the key switch to the starter relay, through the neutral safety switch and back to the battery negative. Whenever the distributor points are closed a small current also flows through the coil.

2. Power through the relay's bottom terminals internally connects the big stud to the solenoid terminal. Current flows from the battery to the starter's solenoid.

3. The starter solenoid (inside the starter) closes and the starter draws battery battery power to spin it.

The starter draws a lot of power.
Battery voltage will get pulled down during starting, but if it drops to 9 V its probably not going to start. Recharge the battery with a charger.
PS. If the battery is that low, do not jump it and use the alternator as a charger unless you are desperate. If you must do this, keep the engine rpms as low as possible to keep charging rate down.

 

[BillGrissom]

Gazillions of info on the web. The starter circuit in my 1996 Plymouth is the same, other than they use a standard Bosch relay (in underhood fuse/relay box), instead of the custom starter relay on your firewall. A common problem is the neutral safety switch which grounds coil- when in P or N (or clutch pedal in). Usually the switch is fine and doing its job since the transmission isn't actually in P or D, despite what the cabin indicator shows, due to slop in the linkage, as 67Dart273 suggested.