Replacing my restored Duster rally dash bezel, Now car won't start

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mistreta

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Putting my dash back in my 70 Duster, had the bezel restored. I think I have all the wiring hooked up that I need to check that all my lights and gauges work, and thought I could start the car, but it won't. Thinking I'm missing a ground someplace.
Took a lot of pictures when I started, hope it would help if I had a problem.
What is hooked up, 3 pin connector above the speedo, pos and neg on the alt gauge and the round connector with pin connectors next to the pos and neg, that plugs into the rear of the gauges What am I missing? Battery is ok. Steering column is lowered a.few inches, nothing else connected.
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Is the voltage limiter missing ? I don't see it.
 
Just checked, 12 volts to the gauge, the 2 wires that you see in the picture, no lights either
 
Is car stick or auto? could be neutral safety or clutch interlock switch. Does it crank? You say doesn't start or is it that it doesn't run. Looking at wiring diagram steering column plug has start wiring in it.
 
tonysrt said:
Is car stick or auto? could be neutral safety or clutch interlock switch. Does it crank? You say doesn't start or is it that it doesn't run. Looking at wiring diagram steering column plug has start wiring in it.
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Car is auto, I'll check the neutral safety switch. No dome light. No screws holding the dash bezel and dash in. Does the dash need to be grounded for all the dash lights and dome light to work?
Don't think I unpluged anything on the steering column

Thank you
 
mistreta said:
Car is auto, I'll check the neutral safety switch. No dome light. No screws holding the dash bezel and dash in. Does the dash need to be grounded for all the dash lights and dome light to work?
Don't think I unpluged anything on the steering column

Thank you
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Yes it must be grounded and it gets that through the screws
 
See if you have voltage on both studs of the ammeter. Be very careful as that part of the circuit is only protected by the fuse link, which is almost no protection at all.

There is no headlight fuse. It branches off the black from the ammeter up in the under dash harness. The headlights circuit is protected by a breaker in the light switch.

The tail/ stop/ instrument lamps are given power by the tail fuse, and the inst fuse is fed from the dash lamp dimmer.

So you should have power with battery conected..........

at the red ammeter wire

at the black ammeter wire

at the headlight terminal of the light switch

at the tail fuse in the fuse panel

You have the bulkhead connector fully hooked up? Did you inspect and clean it for damage? Look uder the hood and find the big fuse link

You need a shop manual Some of them are at MyMopar and some of us here are the reason some of them are there

Service manuals

MyMopar - Mopar Forums & Information - Service Manuals

Aftermarket wiring diagrams. These are useful, but do leave out some circuits and connectors

MyMopar - Mopar Forums & Information - Mopar Wiring / Electrical
 
I would bolt the steering column back up. There is also a ground that goes to it if I remember.
 
340wedge said:
I would bolt the steering column back up. There is also a ground that goes to it if I remember.
Click to expand...

Unless this was added in later years, there is no ground from the cluster to the column. IT IS a good idea to add one. The clusters were traditionally grounded through the mounting screws......a poor design.
 
67Dart273 said:
Unless this was added in later years, there is no ground from the cluster to the column. IT IS a good idea to add one. The clusters were traditionally grounded through the mounting screws......a poor design.
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The light switch is not in the dash, just resting under the dash, does it need to be in the dash to ground it? 67dart273 mentioned a voltage limiter inside the fuel gauge and the black cap on the one stud,
sorry I not sure what to look for. There is 12 volts going to the to amp wires.
 
took a couple more pictures, wires inside the dash. 3 pins above the spedo, pos and neg for alt gauge
and multi pin connector for gauges. I will put the steering column back up, check the ground wireon column and ground the cluster to the column
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mistreta said:
took a couple more pictures, wires inside the dash. 3 pins above the spedo, pos and neg for alt gauge
and multi pin connector for gauges. I will put the steering column back up, check the ground wireon column and ground the cluster to the columnView attachment 1715048756 View attachment 1715048756 View attachment 1715048757 View attachment 1715048758 View attachment 1715048757
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I could be wrong but I think the headlight switch had to be grounded to work everything.
 
The light switch does NOT need grounded except to operate the dome lights "when twisted" far to the left

Did I misunderstand? The headlights don't work either? If not, concentrate on that, as that is a "more direct" problem, and might solve the entire issue.

1...Check for power at the big ammeter terminals both of them. Again be careful not to short these

2....If you have power there, turn the fuse box to access the rear and look for the two big buss bars. One will be hot no matter the key position, the other will only be hot with key in ACC or RUN

If you have that, look up the correct pin/ color on the light switch and see if the switch is getting power

You can look up both aftermarket diagrams and factory service manuals for free from MyMopar. Some of them there are the result of efforts by the guys on here

Below is your light switch. Terminal B is hot feed to the headlights from the ammeter circuit, B2 comes from the tail fuse to feed tail, park, and instrument

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On the fuel gauge, you have three terminals. One is 12V coming in from the key, one (the cap) is a 5V "pulsed" termination and is the output of the limiter coming OUT of the fuel gage and feeding the other gauges, and the third one is the sender connection. Yes....on a Ralleye cluster, the instrument regulator/ limiter is inside the fuel gauge. It is NOT replaceable, but you can disable it and install an add-on unit if needed
 
Thank you for your help.
I think I'll ask my electric savvy friend over to help me with the diagram. But before I do that I'm going to look at all the pictures I took when I took the dash apart and make sure I did not miss anything putting things back. I'll let you and everyone know how things are then.
Thanks again
 
Review where you stand on what does / does not work? The headlights has nothing to do with the cluster EXCEPT FOR the ammeter connections. IF YOU "sparked" those wires, you may have popped the fuse link in the engine bay

If it won't start that would explain that also. The cluster has to be grounded for the gauges to work BUT NOT for the headlights or to start the car
 
Something else to look for is if your getting the key start power at the starter relay. You can jump the starter relay to crank the engine. This would eliminate anything in the dash if you can jump it and it cranks. If this works then work your way back to steering column wiring.
 
67Dart273 said:
Review where you stand on what does / does not work? The headlights has nothing to do with the cluster EXCEPT FOR the ammeter connections. IF YOU "sparked" those wires, you may have popped the fuse link in the engine bay

If it won't start that would explain that also. The cluster has to be grounded for the gauges to work BUT NOT for the headlights or to start the car
Click to expand...
Just in case, where is the fuse link, what type of fuse is it?
 
The fuse link is at the bulkhead connector on engine side it looks like a normal wire but usually has
a plastic flag molded on it that reads fusible link here's a pic.

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