74 dart weird electrical issues help please

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swingerdave

swingerdave

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I have 74 dart 318, that seems to overcharge, also for some reason, the parking lamps and all dash lights are coming on with the key in run position and will stay on with the car running, I'm stumped I've done very thing I can, new voltage reg. Battery tried testing all the connections I'm stuck and need help I'm used to ford and chevy but new to mopar all help will be appreciated thanks
 
If I were you, I would find either a reprint paper or "on CD" shop manual. The wiring in 73-74 saw changes, and the diagrams from Ma are drawn MUCH different than the older years. Additionally, the ones posted above, while helpful, are NOT complete, nor do they locate the different connectors, splices, etc.

You may have more than one trouble.

First, did this just start happening, or did you just buy the car?

Does the wiring appear factory, or did someone hack it up, or has it been rewired with an aftermarket harness?

So far as a factory situation, over voltage can be several causes

1...ground issues. The regulator MUST be at battery neg. ground. I can step you through checking for that

2...Voltage drop in the igntion harness

3...Bad regulator but rare. These usually either work, or don't

4...Rare, but battery going bad can sometimes cause this.
 
I would remove the park lamp fuse and start hunting where the power is coming from.
If there is a aftermarket radio I would start looking there for circuits crossed.
The ignition switch wiring below the steering column is another possibility.
Aftermarket replacement ignition switches have been wired wrong before.
Good luck
 
My bet would be a partially toasted dash harness. Check where it comes in from the bulkhead connector and check along as much of it as possible. If you see any melted tape, you found the problem.
 
Thanks guys it is a new car to me I bought it 2 weeks ago, it runs s and drives fine and I've looked for burnt wires and cut wires can't seem to find anything I did find 2 wires that were spliced together to 1 wire and it's a hot wire I've tested it, the parking lamps come on but I can turn them off by turning the dimmer down hut my dash lights are always on, I was going to replace the headlight switch ?
 
swingerdave said:
Thanks guys it is a new car to me I bought it 2 weeks ago, it runs s and drives fine and I've looked for burnt wires and cut wires can't seem to find anything I did find 2 wires that were spliced together to 1 wire and it's a hot wire I've tested it, the parking lamps come on but I can turn them off by turning the dimmer down hut my dash lights are always on, I was going to replace the headlight switch ?
Click to expand...

You're not gonna be happy...that's classic burnt harness. If I were you, I'd pull the gauge cluster and get a good look at that harness. The part that you a probably having an issue with runs up and over the cluster...directly under the dash pad. When there is any type of short in the charging or headlight system that does not take out the fusable link, that is where you're going to find wires melted together. Much more common than you think.
 
swingerdave said:
I did find 2 wires that were spliced together to 1 wire and it's a hot wire I've tested it, the parking lamps come on but I can turn them off by turning the dimmer down hut my dash lights are always on, I was going to replace the headlight switch ?
Click to expand...


There should be no interaction between the dash dimmer and the park lights if I understood your description. "Cuts and splices" are never a good thing.

This sounds like a lot of work, but I've done this when I was younger. Pull the cluster and the seat(s) so you can get "in there." Unplug the dash harness and pull it out. String it out on a bench where you can tie it to screws/ nails at branch points, and untape it and inspect for melted wires that have shorted together.

Might also be easier to remove the added splices and "start over" that is, see what doesn't work, and repair from there.

Trust me on this.........if you are going to do this you need to get yourself a proper FACTORY service manual. Not Haynes, and not Chiltons, but a Chrysler factory manual.
 
Look around the internet. Ebay, etc, there are folks offering paper reprints and "on CD." Both have advantages. I bought a 74 shop manual in paper at a car show, "some old guy" hauls tons of 'em around in a trailer. Be sure to get BOTH the chassis manual and the body manual.
 

Also I believe that my over charging is the alternator, just because it tested good doesn't mean it's good I've changed everything but that so what's to lose . THANKS ALOT GUYS
 
Alternators don't overcharge as a rule. Wiring issues and regulators DO

It's much more common for you to have a regulator grounding issue, or voltage drop in the wiring, rather than a regulator issue

The ONLY things which will cause an alternator to charge is

1....The alternator must be an isolated field, IE 70 and later incorrectly called "dual field"

3...If the rotor develops a short such that the "green wire" brush happens to be hooked to "that end" of the rotor, the blue wire will feed full 12V into the field and cause full tilt over-charging.

4...More common is brush holder assembled incorrectly, or insulating washer left out or broken. This will cause that brush to ground rather than to be insulated.

If the field wires are connected the "other way" then the blue wire will be working into a short, and cause harness damage, that is, if the blue is hooked to the grounded brush.

There are many many threads on this issue do a search. If you can't find what you want, ask questions

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=201044

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=189403

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=219814

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=165554
 
It won't let me upload the photo but I have the harness out and there's a thing plugged into the harness looks factory and almost looks like a flasher but it's smaller in diameter and a little longer I have no clue
 
So if I'm looking from the front of the car the wires go far left the constant power, then the green field then the blue field left to right ?
 
Without photos I have no idea. Go to the forums page and look around. There's a thread there on loading photos. Basically you need to resize your photo so that the largest dimension is 800 pixels or less, or else upload them to a host site such as photobucket and link them here.

What issues are you having with uploading?

The two "push on" connectors on the alternator normally do not matter which is which, IE you can reverse them and it should work fine.
 
Well good news everything works good after cleaning all the electric connections my battle was corrosion, still have the overcharging but will deal with it next week, thanks all you have been alot of help
 
The battery is at around 12.9 volts at idle and will jump up to 16 -17 volts when revved that's where I'm at all the lights get brighter with rpm, I ran a ground from battery to VR I'm stuck on that in the meantime I'm going to research other posts
 
So I have gotten everything figured out except at idle it charges at 13.8 13.9 volts, then holding at 2000 rpm it's like 17 or 18 volts I'm stumped I've grounded everything and checked everything
 
This might be a bad VR.

If you are certain the VR is grounded, turn the key to "run" but engine not running. Check voltage at blue alternator field wire to battery positive. You want a very very low reading the lower the better. More than about .3V (three tenths of one volt) means trouble.

If you have another car, swap a known good working battery in and try that. Once in awhile a bad battery can cause trouble.
 
It's fixed was a bad regulator from autozone went to oreillys where I had a commercial acct. Now it's fixed, it's a little high at first but after it charged up the battery everything was perfect
 
So everything's working pretty good, now for the last bug in the system, all the lights in the car get brighter with engine speed they get brighter to a certain point then no more (it's not blowing anything and my volts are good) also the turn signals blink faster when I hit the pedal any ideas ?
 
Do you mean that they get brighter going from idle to fast idle or normal cruise RPM's? If so, that is normal; the alternator does not put out full voltage at idle. The blinker going faster is also normal as you go to full voltage. Have you put a voltmeter on the system and checked the voltages while this happens? If you have, and it increases to the 13.8-14.2v range or thereabouts going from idle to fast idle or cruise, then it is behaving normally. BTW, the cruise/high RPM voltage will also tend to drop down a few tenths of a volt as the alternator gets hotter.

Where was the corrision that you found and cleaned?

Man, you sure do get up early!
 
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