Electrical issues

[meepbeep69]

Well the car is on the road and the alignment nice.

Along the ride home I got a bunch of thumbs up and a few, "hey your left brake light is out"

I got it home. Checked the light and it was not working. All the outer lights were working before I left the shop.

I played with the left side light ground and the light would come on then go off.

My step son gets in the car and started to wiggle the turn signal and I got the left side brake light and turn signal. The urge to drive was too strong so I decided to be Goober from Mayberry and off we went. If I push forward on the turn signal my brake lights and rear turn signal work fine. So amongst thinking about braking ahead for the drum brakes I have to think push turn signal forward, brake, clutch. (The ground wire from the steering column to the dash was scratched of paint and is clean. I will check it again)

The license plate light was off so I grounded it to the ground on the trunk post phillips head screw and it lit up.

The turn signals work outside, the brights work outside but no lights for them on the instrument cluster. The instrument cluster lights themselves work well.

The fuel gauge is not registering and ditto on the coolant gauge. The tach is working but is off a bit and the altmeter is working.

I know I have a host of items but any ideas on what's up and what and where to ground? Step by step I can pick them off.

The grounds I know I have are the front core support times two for the front lights, battery, back of block to firewall, steering to dash and trunk latch post area screw.

Here's another thing. The flashers work when I put the flasher on and turn the turn signal on. I think that might be the brown wire in the back of the switch.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Any electrical guru's out there?

 

[6R9Runner]

For the gas gauge you can test 2 things. (With the car off but key in RUN) remove the dk blue wire from the sender and connect a new wire between that one and a known ground under the car (alligator clips are handy on either end of the new wire). This shorts the gauge to ground and the gauge should go to FULL, in fact beyond. Remove that wire and turn the key OFF. Next set your DVM on Ohms and connect it between the sender post (where the dk blue wire was) and ground. You should get a low reading if the tank is full, eg 5 ohms, and over 40 ohms if the tank is low. I just went through the same thing recently. How's your horn? Mine goes off when I turn left!

 

[mcmopar]

When I got my car back the rear lights were doing pretty much as yours are doing now. I needed to replace the turn signal cam because it would not automatically return to the neutral position after a turn. Once I replaced the cam and wiring harness (bought from Year One) everything was a-ok. If your turn signal cam is working properly you may want to check the wiring that runs from the turn signal apparatus to the base of the steering column. You may just need to pull the wires out one by one and clean them up a bit. Its worth a shot. :cents:

 

[meepbeep69]

The horn works and the cam cancels both turn signals.

I drove it last night just had to push down a bit on the turn signal before I hit the brakes.

The engine harness and wiper harness are new. The bulkhead connections are old but from a really clean donor car. The light harness front and rear are used.

I do not get the idiot light for the oil or brights when on.

The dome light worked a bit then decided to come on full time. Instant callous when I pulled that.

I have been reading the moparts and b body board. They talk of grounding engine mount to k member. I know I do not have that.

I am going to ground the tail light and left side back up. Right side works all the time but the left back up is tempermental.

Any ideas on the temp gauge? The car has a non ralleye dash which lights up with the thumb wheels but I do not get the light from the turn signal, brights, or idiot oil guage.

The radio works fine and the speedo is pretty steady with a little drift. That seemed to take car of itself.

I will print the electrical stuff and give it to my buddy who is a retired Mopar mechanic. In the interim I am going to take all the parts apart and clean them again. The joy of getting back behind the speedo is well just swell.

 

[Basketcase]

ah the fun of electrical bugs. takes some time, but you'll figure it out.

 

[John69RR]

Was anything done with or to the instrument cluster? Fuel and temperature gauges, oil pressure light, high beam indiator and turn signals are all fed through the round plug on the back. The curiuos thing though is that your dash lights work. I would pull the connector from the back of the cluster and make sure all the wires have tight connections. Clean them up being careful to not damage the circuit board. I can't explain the pushing on the blinker thing but the other issues sound like the circuit board on the cluster. There is a voltage limiter on the cluster that feeds the temperature and fuel gauge with 5v.

 

[Basketcase]

and possibly some of the pins on the circut board are loose/broke?

 

[meepbeep69]

The pins were perfect on the back. I cleaned them up before I put it together. I will gently pull that out and clean it up.

The rectangular voltage regulator could be it.

Somewhere I saw a newer model link for one. Maybe if that runs my problem areas then it is the culprit. It says oil pressure, fuel gauge and temp.

Then I would be after the bright lights and turn signals on the dash.

I keep remembering that there were two wires to the flasher. I studied and studied the back of the dash and put them in. If for instance one was supposed to go in the other place would that be the problem with the flashers?

 

[John69RR]

The flasher switch uses 2 seperate brown wires, right? The flasher and blinker relays should use a two wire plug. As for the high beams and blinkers, are the bulb sockets making good contact with the panel? Are the bulbs good? Make sure that none of the pins came out of the plug when you connected it to the circuit board also.

 

[meepbeep69]

Oh the joy of going back in there.

What does the rectangular dash voltage regulator run? Or if it went on the fritz what would go out?

:brickwall:

 

[Basketcase]

it controls to a part the gauges. I don't remember al the details, but I read where the dash is supposed to have something like 5 volts going thru it, but it doesn't really. this regulater kind of bridges a gap. I've never had it happen with the non rallye dash, but sometimes the gauges will peg out, then drop to 0, then retuen to normal. I had this happen in my '68 Charger. I read an artical a few years back where someone came out with either a true 5 volt regulator, or a transistorized one that cure the pegging problem.

 

[John69RR]

I bought one of the newer limiters but can't remember from whom. It was about $50.00. Here is a link that details dash troubleshooting.
http://www.moparfins.com/Repairs/Fuel_G ... Repair.htm

 

[meepbeep69]

The steering wheel had a crack in it after a few miles.

BEA stood by his product and sent me another without a peep. Great fellow do do business with!

I knew I had to pull the steering wheel plus I knew I had a problem with the turn signal cam in the column. I also knew my dash voltage regulator was suspect. So it was YOGA time.

Instrument cluster, steering wheel, lower dash pad and switch panel are out. If anyone needs some pictures let me know.

The bear will be the phillips screws back into the dimmer switch. Gotta love a challenge.

I pulled the turn signal cam/actuator and noticed an ever so slight U shape to the top. The turn signal cam is original to the car. It is subtle enough and uniform on both sides of center that it could have been designed that way. Or after 41 years it could have warped evenly. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon?

It was also dirty so I cleaned it up.

One of the back up lamps was tempermental and the license plate light would not work. A little solder and a wire to the existing ground took care of that.

Somewhere I read that there is a ground under the back seat. Is there?

I am also scrathing my head at this one. Headlamps off doors open dome light on. Headlamps on door open dome light on. Shut door dome light off both with and without headlights on. Headlamps on dimmer switch movement and instrument cluster responds. Headlamps on dimmer switch all the way up dome light on. Dimmer switch back down....dome light still on full but instrument cluster responds by getting dimmer. Headlamps off dimmer switch full up and dome light goes on but will not turn off.

Any ideas? Switch bad?

I guess I could let it go and just open the door if I need the dome light. Car has the glove box light, map light and lighted key if that is of any significance.

 

[Basketcase]

not surprised by BE&A, have heard nothing but good about them.
sounds like the dash dimmer switch s bad. this car is the first one I've had that the doe light works off the dash switch.
never seen a ground wire under the back seat. there should be on on the tail panel.

 

[A31PKG]

The instrument panel voltage regulator provides 5 volts (ish) to the fuel gauge and temp gauge circuits...

I've seen a few cars with similar issues over the years... Sounds like a classic ground problem. Without going into radical detail, try this: connect a ground wire to the negative battery terminal, bring it inside the car through the window (door shut), and attach to the dash frame and steering column....see if that corrects anything. You will essentially be by-passing the factory ground path. If stuff starts working the way it's supposed to, then you've narrowed it down...

Another common problem is a poor connection at the dimmer switch, which can cause weird headlight operation...
re-squeeze the terminals as needed...

 

[Big John]

I don't remember seeing a ground under the back seat, but there is a ground connection to the steering column support. The dome light issue sounds like a ground problem.

In my experience, most electrical problems on older cars are due to bad grounds. Either there is rust or paint preventing the ground or the ground strap or wire is just missing.

 

[meepbeep69]

Thanks for all the tips.

I am going to scratch off paint and get metal on metal.

I have a grounds on the battery to block, back of block to the firewall, steering column to the funky looking bolt on the right side front steering mount and the trunk hook mount.

The big question I have is I also do not have temp or fuel gauge as well as do not have the idiot lights for the brake, bright lights or turn signals.
Is that the 5 volt regulator that runs all of that?

The dome light and dimmer switch work to brighten and dim off the cluster and the dome is really bright.

 

[mac]

The big question I have is I also do not have temp or fuel gauge as well as do not have the idiot lights for the brake, bright lights or turn signals.
Is that the 5 volt regulator that runs all of that?

just going over the instrument wiring diagram and it appears that all of the non working item listed above all have in common the voltage limiter.

page 5 and 6 in this link:http://www.69roadrunner.net/Tech Reference/wiring.pdf

 

[meepbeep69]

I had to read your post about three times. By the way thanks.

The avitar has me thinking I must be a closet breast man.

Knew myself to be a leg man but wow!

What was it I need to fix on this Roadrunner by next spring again?

I had to edit this..........................she has good legs too!

 

[A31PKG]

The big question I have is I also do not have temp or fuel gauge as well as do not have the idiot lights for the brake, bright lights or turn signals.
Is that the 5 volt regulator that runs all of that?

just going over the instrument wiring diagram and it appears that all of the non working item listed above all have in common the voltage limiter.

page 5 and 6 in this link:http://www.69roadrunner.net/Tech Reference/wiring.pdf

What's common in these circuits is the 12v feed...The actual 5v regulated voltage only effects the fuel gauge and temp gauge....Of course, if the feed is less than 12v then that's not good...You may want to pull the firewall connectors apart and give them all a good inspection & cleaning...then give the female terminals a little crimp so they bite better...apply dielectric grease to the terminals before re-connecting.