my car broke down..... : ( (electrical problems)

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17dartandbroke

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Luling, LA
Well, we left Louisiana for the storm being that no one knew exactly where it was going. I opted to take the dart with me...................well, six hour of traffic later the car just goes kaput. The engine didnt overheat though. It is something electrical. The key doesnt crank the car. You can get the starter to turn from the solenoid, but then there is no spark. The headlights also dont come on. When i looked under the dash all of the fuses were blown. The battery is dead as well. The lights do not come on. The electric fan and radio come on when i turn the switch on. Any clue where my electrical gremlin is? I have to drive the car to school on monday, and just got back from houston. I sure hope this is relatively easy to fix.

thanks,
daryl
 
If all your fuses blew sounds like you had a major surge of voltage. Your fusible link is probably fried too, provided that it hasn't already been by passed. Sounds like it could have because thats supposed to protect the entire system. The fan and radio probably still come on because they're not wired thru the fuse box, I'm assuming they are aftermarket add ons. Do you have a wiring schematic for your car? You might also want to check your regulator. If you don't have a wiring schematic, I might be able to send you one.
 
the fusable link was never bypassed as far as i know. i do not have a wiring schematic for the car though. i would appreciate it if you could send me one. im charging the battery tonite, and unpacking. ill be taking on the car in the morning.
 
Check the bulkhead of wires at the ferewall connection . I had 2or 3 Dusters and at least 1 Dart have a melted large red wire, in that connection. Or witin a few inches of the connection - melted. Caused them to loose all power to inside of car, and no turning over of motor. It has been a couple of years, I am not sure what else didn't work.
 
Yup check the bulk head. Pull it apart and make sure its clean and not melted. Check the fusible link and make sure thats not melted. Then pull the guage custer and check the ammeter. Make sure the wires are tight and not melted. Its a very comman problem with chryslers. So much that one of the first things I do know is replace the engine harness. It saves a lot of grief in the long run.
 
I've seen quite a few of those too :shock: One thing that helps prevent that, as long as you're not into the whole originality thing, is to run headlight relays. When you start running the new high output headlight bulbs, you start pulling a whole lot of current through the bulk head connector and the headlight switch. Running relays let you run straight from the battery to the relay then to the headlights. Only low current through the bulk head connector and headlight switch to activate the relays. Your headlights also tend to be a little brighter :sunny:
 
im going to try to hunt it down for now, but where can i get the engine harness? im seriously considering doing this? does it include the bulkhead and all?
 
im going to try to hunt it down for now, but where can i get the engine harness? im seriously considering doing this? does it include the bulkhead and all?
 
Year One sells the harness. It includes the wires from the firewall forward. The rest of the bulk head is part of the dash harness wich is about $500
 
Check your connector at the bulk head to make sure its melted before you go buying a new one. The engine harness is available thru most of the resto parts places (year one, laysons, paddock,etc.). The bulk head itself is part of the underdash harness, the engine harness will have the connector that plugs into it. I believe the go for about $125+ for the engine harness. If yours is melted I may have one thats good. I just stripped out this 73 Duster and I took just about all the wiring out of it. I'll check it out a see how the connectors look.
 
Get a hold of Jim Lusk at BigBlockDart.com. He has a cd he sells with
all Mopar wiring scematics from 58 to 78 for 25.00 :thumrigh:
 
and don't waste your time attempting to buy a harness from Year One (based on MY experience).

They had my money for 8 weeks and NEVER a part showed up.

I got my money back, FINALLY, and now I shop elsewhere.

Jim
 
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