The car is a 318 auto. The problem is when the battery is hooked up and the key off. If you push the brake pedal, turn on headlamps, any accessories turned on the starter will engage. This also happens when turn the key to accessory or on position.The car does not actually start and run just cranks over when you turn anything on. This car was bought in this condition, no history is known. PLEASE HELP!
74 Road Runner has a ghost!
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doug 371
Well-Known Member
make sure u have a good ground to the body from the battery and also ground wire from the engine block to the frame/firewall...
3404speed
Ancient Decrepit Member
as a kid, I remember my Mom's 65 Chrysler, that if you put the 4 ways on, the turn signal, and held the brake down, I could listen to the radio without the keys in the car....so cool....LOL
ok, now I know a bunch of you are going to go try this...I don't know if good things will happen, seems like backfeeding the wiring to the accessory circuit.
ok, now I know a bunch of you are going to go try this...I don't know if good things will happen, seems like backfeeding the wiring to the accessory circuit.
1967DartGT
Well-Known Member
I think all of the dodges that I have ever owned had some kind of electrical problem at one time or another. I'd be curious to hear if anybody has never dealt with electrical gremlins.
I had a Volkswagen ages ago. At one moment, when I had no key in the ignition lock and turned the wipers on the head lights lit up and viseversa when I put the lights on the wipers started.
Did a check on the battery and had a short in one of the cells.
Replaced the battery and all was well, strange, never found an explenation with that
Did a check on the battery and had a short in one of the cells.
Replaced the battery and all was well, strange, never found an explenation with that
BigStrok3
Mopar!
All of these are lies it really is haunted. But i will be nice enough to take it off your hands 
grumpuscreature
Resident Curmudgeon
Had a problem like this with my '74 Charger in 1976. It was weird, the starter would just take off and run until you unhooked the battery. Dealer replaced the seat belt interlock box and took care of it.
Who ya gonna call............
Ghost Busters
Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Good Luck with that one. Lots of great techs here.
Ghost Busters
Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Good Luck with that one. Lots of great techs here.
The firs thing that comes to my mind is the ignition switch. Try to unhook the switch to see if the problem still there. If so...
Unhook the wire at the starter relay, turn on any accesory to see if you can read any voltage on the wire, if you can, follow the wire backwords until you find the source of the failure.
You must have a back feed from some connection.
In the worst scenario you got a toasted electrical harness due to bad connection which caused a overheating.
Also check the fusebox for bad connections (again overheating).
Unhook the wire at the starter relay, turn on any accesory to see if you can read any voltage on the wire, if you can, follow the wire backwords until you find the source of the failure.
You must have a back feed from some connection.
In the worst scenario you got a toasted electrical harness due to bad connection which caused a overheating.
Also check the fusebox for bad connections (again overheating).
grumpuscreature
Resident Curmudgeon
Au contrare mon cher, I told you what the problem was, you chose to ignore it. 1974 models had a seatbelt interlock system to prohibit starting of the car without fastening the seat belts per NHTSA mandate. This system caused such egregious havoc within the first 6 months that Congress enacted law to rescind the requirement, effective the 1975 model year, and to curb the regulatory authority of the NHTSA. One of the problems caused by the interlock system is the one you are experiencing. There was more than one instance of a manual shift car causing extensive damage with spontaneous starter engagement.
The only way to fix it is to replace the defective control box, or remove the offending system entirely. I suspect it will be easier to find a 1973 or 1975 wiring harness than it will be to find a functioning seatbelt interlock control box. The box was located just above the heater motor on the firewall of my Charger. It was a metal box with a button on top that said "Press to Start". The button was about 1/2" in diameter, made of plastic, and if I recall correctly it was even red. Mine liked to stall out on railroad crossings and I had to coast to a stop, get out, pop the hood, press the button, get in and drive away. Had it changed when it began trying to start without input from me and got rid of the car shortly thereafter.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
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