Need help, Dart won't start...

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It's not cut but he wrapped and soldered the stereo wire on there. The black accessory wire is the same way. Someone hold my hand and guide me in how to test this spot... I don't want to die!
 
Jeez, look at the picture,half the strands are broken. When its damaged it needs a proper repair. You asked i suggested it. I have probably made 10,000 wire splices in my life, and when more than a couple strands are broken it warrants a good solid fix.
Fix it once, fix it right.
 
Tooljunkie said:
Jeez, look at the picture,half the strands are broken. When its damaged it needs a proper repair. You asked i suggested it. I have probably made 10,000 wire splices in my life, and when more than a couple strands are broken it warrants a good solid fix.
Fix it once, fix it right.
Click to expand...
The broken strands were from the stereo wire. My phone died or I would send another picture. I just want to test if this is my problem spot. On another note, would putting in a new ignition switch be even better? This is on the column side connection.
 
Have you removed the offending wire?
And the one off the black?
Sure hope you are playing with the battery disconnected, otherwise you are going to create more problems for yourself.
Visual faults-repair them.
Quit over thinking this.
Its an early mopar with a handful of easy to trace wires.

Its nothing compared to todays systems with serial bus and multi-plex with 19 computer controllers.

Any break in a wire,a few strands here, a few strands there all add up to volt/ampere problems.
 
Yes, I took off the wire, that's how I found out he stripped it, wrapped the wire and then soldered. I just want to know how to test it and to see if a new ignition switch with unmolested wires would be better. If not I'll cut and solder. Actually, I will cut and solder then test it if someone would just tell me how to not fry something while testing it. Voltmeter with long lead from positive of battery to this spot?
 
LivewireBlanco said:
Voltmeter with long lead from positive of battery to this spot?
Click to expand...

Yes or just take readings to ground and compare. I tried to get that to you earlier

PUT THE KEY IN RUN. This will put a small load on the circuit. Don't leave it there for long, or you will burn the points

Measure the power INTO the switch, the big red

Measure the power at the IGN1 wire and see what the difference is. Wiggle the key, the switch, the wires, the connector
 
Ok, will do. This guy and his wiring... He used household wiring... I guess the stereo will come out after all this to get rewired. Thanks for bearing with me. Electrical stuff isn't my strong suit.
 
Battery 12.02v
Red fuse link engine side 11.83v
Red wire dash side 11.77v
Red wire after a-hole splice 11.08v
Blue wire dash side 10.8v
Blue wire engine side 10.27v
Blue wire on ballast- 9.72v

Does this mean fix the splice, bulkhead on blue ignition wire is not good and leading up to ballast also not good?
 
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it aint got no gas in it emm hmmm....
Carl.jpg
 
My plan is to cut the area that was sspliced until it's good wire then solder it and double heat shrink. Then take blue wire into bulkhead and clean or replace connector. Lastly I found the blue wires going into ballast has some spots that have bare wire exposed about 6 inches from ballast. I plan to cut out the last part of wires out, solder new wire on and pray.
 
LivewireBlanco said:
Battery 12.02v
Red fuse link engine side 11.83v
Red wire dash side 11.77v
Red wire after a-hole splice 11.08v
Blue wire dash side 10.8v
Blue wire engine side 10.27v
Blue wire on ballast- 9.72v

Does this mean fix the splice, bulkhead on blue ignition wire is not good and leading up to ballast also not good?
Click to expand...

You are measuring this with the key in "run?" Evne the drop at the fuse link is troubling, that should right at "same as battery." And yeah, you are measuring the big red inside the car exactly where, at the interior of the bulkhead connector? You have a little more right there

then you have the blue that's a WHOLE VOLT drop sounds like this is each side of the ignition switch.

I cannot imagine how the blue wire dropped between the bulkhead connector and ballast. I'd say you have several bad connections in there

I hope you are getting an idea of "how this works" because the drop at each connection tells a story. "It aint good"
 
I'm understanding it now. Did the work I said and here are the new numbers:

*10.17v at ballast just changing 6 inches of blue in front of ballast. Wire was not good.
*10.3v at ballast with new male connector on blue wire in bulkhead
*Cut and soldered red wire at bad splice nothing changed...I guess I suck at soldering.
I now have 10.62v to positive of coil. I'm going to get a new fuse link tomorrow. Mine just broke off at the new connector I put... which might have been an issue. What size?
 
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I'm starting to think this has to be coil or distributor. The advertised primary resistance for this coil is 1.4 ohms and secondary is 9.2k ohms. Mine tested at 2.0 ohms and over 10k ohms (I think it was around 10.2k). The distributor has new points gapped at .017 and condensor.
 
Many ohmeters are not accurate at low ohm measurements, and even if they are you have to take precautions. Flukes have a scale where you can zero out the test lead resistance. Otherwise you have to subtract that. If you switch your meter to the lowest reading scale, and short the leads together "hard" to make excellent contact, what do your read? I bet it's not zero

Sounds like you are making progess I doubt it was the wire per se, likely the connection or splice or whatever. Be sure to wiggle as you read, it will show up loose/ bad connections sometimes.
 
67Dart273 said:
Many ohmeters are not accurate at low ohm measurements, and even if they are you have to take precautions. Flukes have a scale where you can zero out the test lead resistance. Otherwise you have to subtract that. If you switch your meter to the lowest reading scale, and short the leads together "hard" to make excellent contact, what do your read? I bet it's not zero
Click to expand...
Forgot about that. Mine is .2 so I guess that would make it 1.8 ohms primary. It's either coil, coil wire, or distributor keeping it from sparking... I tried putting it in run and taking the coil wire almost touching the manifold and moving the distributor to open the points and got no spark.
 
EASY. You have points, right? You have a dwell meter? Scare up a spare condenser.......(capacitor).........the one in the distributor

Unhook the "key side" of the ballast so you can use a clip lead to jumper power to the coil through the ballast. Don't leave this connected for long, only just while you are testing.

so jumper power to the ballast
"Rig" a wire and clean spark plug or better yet a spark tester gap (parts store) to the coil tower. Crank the engine and see if you have anything.

NO? Determine if the points are closing/ drawing current or opening

to do that, simply put a light or meter on the coil NEG. With powr to the ballast, and the points closed, you should read a low voltage, say, .5--1V maybe less. Less is better, shows the points have low resistance

Bump the engine see if the voltage goes up to "same as battery." This shows the points are opening.

If the above is OK and no spark, try a different condenser. If that does not work try a different coil

OTHER caveats: Sometimes the advance plate is not grounding well, rust, corrosion, etc. the points have to ground through that. The dual points dists have a dedicated ground wire, but you can add a small gauge one. This is easily checked with your meter

With points closed, and ignition powered, measure voltage between advance plate (points ground) and the distributor case. Wiggle it around. If you get close to zero, it's fine

Points get corroded sitting. This would be a good guess

Condenser. These go bad with no explanation. In today's world, a new one does not guarantee good

Distributor wire. These DO and HAVE opened inside (from flex) or shorted to the case where they go through the hole
 
Ok did some of your tests. I got a nice blue spark from coil wire to intake bolt using a jumper from negative post on coil.

Ignition on run:
Ground to neg post on coil .55v
Ground to points plate in distributor to ground .1

Bad condenser?
 
If you are getting a nice hot spark out of the coil the ignition is WORKING. Now you can go on to

compression
fuel
timing
 
67Dart273 said:
If you are getting a nice hot spark out of the coil the ignition is WORKING. Now you can go on to

compression
fuel
timing
Click to expand...
I had the distributor unhooked. Running only the coil. I had a jumper from negative on coil touching to ground and off to get the spark.
 
Ok so hook up dist. Bump engine until points are open. Confirm this with the key in run you should have battery voltage at coil NEG

Now with your spark tester, take a screwdriver or jumper clip lead and repeatedly touch the coil NEG to ground. You should get a nice hot spark. If you do the condenser is good. Then just (as outlined earlier) determine that the points are both mechanically and electrically closing and opening. You should have spark at that point
 
67Dart273 said:
Ok so hook up dist. Bump engine until points are open. Confirm this with the key in run you should have battery voltage at coil NEG

Now with your spark tester, take a screwdriver or jumper clip lead and repeatedly touch the coil NEG to ground. You should get a nice hot spark. If you do the condenser is good. Then just (as outlined earlier) determine that the points are both mechanically and electrically closing and opening. You should have spark at that point
Click to expand...
The points are mechanically closing and I posted the voltages with points closed earlier. With the key in run can I rotate the distributor by hand to open and close the points and have a spark plug grounded to verify spark?
 
LivewireBlanco said:
The points are mechanically closing and I posted the voltages with points closed earlier. With the key in run can I rotate the distributor by hand to open and close the points and have a spark plug grounded to verify spark?
Click to expand...

You mean with the dist out of the car? Yes if you ground the housing
 
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