My dart wont die

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tomcatx5

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belleview, FL
After what seems like forever, my dart is almost road worthy again. However. I have one problem, It starts and runs great but won't shut off when I turn the key. is it a bad ignition(key) switch or do I still have a wire in the wrong place. Any help is always appreciated. By the way, thank you to all who have helped me in the past.
 
There should be a wire to the ballast that you can pull to kill it, which is the power feed from the ignition switch to the ballast, coil, etc. If the car stops running when you pull this wire, then it is likely the ignition switch. Ths would be a dark blue wire to a 2 wire ballast (not at the end of the ballast with the brown wire to it). But I don't know you year of car to know if the ballast is 2 wire or 4 wire.

Is the wiring to/from the ignition switch stock/original?
 
My car is a 68 and i have a two wire ballast resistor, i also bought a 4 prong ballast resistor but cant seem to find the right diagram, Whicb one should I use? I have a 4 pin box w a 5 pin plug
 
We have the diagram so no worries there, I'm sure someone like Del will post it for you.
Keep in mind that a misconnected wire from the alternator into the ignition circuit somewhere can cause this also.
Even a bad diode in the alternator can cause it if the wires are crossed up somewhere as the backflow of power can cause the ignition to be powered all the time that the battery is connected.

This particular scenario is pretty easy to diagnose though.
If you leave the battery connected and it goes dead after a day or so, then something in the wiring is crossed up causing power to be at the ignition system all the time, instead of just when the key is on.

You can start at the coil and backtrack the power source with a test light.
 
I don't guess I know what I'm looking for exactly. If I use a test light to backtrack, how will I know when I've found my problem? A diagram would be awesome, especially if it had the ecu box, alternator, coil, voltage regulator, ballast resistor, starter relay, and ignition switch. I'm sure that's too much to ask for but until I find such a diagram I don't see my problems coming to an end anytime soon. Thanks a lot for trying to help though. Electrical is not my expertise to say the least.
 
I don't guess I know what I'm looking for exactly. If I use a test light to backtrack, how will I know when I've found my problem? A diagram would be awesome, especially if it had the ecu box, alternator, coil, voltage regulator, ballast resistor, starter relay, and ignition switch. I'm sure that's too much to ask for but until I find such a diagram I don't see my problems coming to an end anytime soon. Thanks a lot for trying to help though. Electrical is not my expertise to say the least.
 
tomcatx5 said:
I don't guess I know what I'm looking for exactly. If I use a test light to backtrack, how will I know when I've found my problem? A diagram would be awesome, especially if it had the ecu box, alternator, coil, voltage regulator, ballast resistor, starter relay, and ignition switch. I'm sure that's too much to ask for but until I find such a diagram I don't see my problems coming to an end anytime soon. Thanks a lot for trying to help though. Electrical is not my expertise to say the least.
Click to expand...

What model and year?
We have diagrams for almost everything.

I guess if a person doesn't know how all of it works it would be hard to tell woudn't it.

Start it and disconnect the harness for the ignition switch (did it die?)
Then it's in the ignition switch.

Do you have signals, wipers, or heater blower when the key off?
 
2 wire ballast is normal for a 68 Dart so that is good; sounds like most the stock wire colors should be there. Remove the blue wires from the one end of the ballast resistor while it is running and it should stop running. If not, then , with these 2 blue wires still disconnected, check with your test light and see if there is voltage at the other end of the ballast (with the brown and blue wires); there shoudl be no voltage there but wil lbe if the car does not stop running as above.

It could be that that the 2 wires from the ignition are swapped; some further test steps can tell that.

BTW, your car did not originally come with the electronic ECU; it had points. So, the stock diagrams will not show the ECU. BUT still download them so we can all be discussing the wires from a commonly known diagram.

So, tell us, did you wire in the ECU or was it there when you got the car? This is important to know. It is not clear from the prior posts.
 
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