Rusty's not very quiet cuda progress

hit the key, NOTHING!
Nothing as in the starter still doesn't work, or as in the motor won't start?

I should've mentioned that I drilled out that ring terminal to fit also, and those HF step drills are good for that, they don't wrap up and bend the crap out of the terminal.

I didn't even push that insulator up on the terminal on mine. I figured they worked just fine without it, plus the starter and header are fixed in space, so what on earth could get up in there and short it out besides nothing?

I would bring it up on compression to 15 BTDC, then put the distributor in so the rotor points right at the #1 distributor terminal. You can make it a little easier to get it pointed by drilling out the #1 terminal on an old cap.

At least your valves are opening and closing so you know when it's on compression or not. Mine are all closed because the lifters aren't pumped up so I have to figure it out another way.
 
Starter doesn't work from key, jumper button at starter relay did work.

I was using the instructions Jass posted for me, all is good cept the oil pump shaft.
 
So with the electric all I tried was to verify I didn't screw up jass's magic box & I had continuity where the 2 yellows go, then scratching my head (I hate electric gremlins & it seems I have many this time)
I decided not to waste a nice day & moved on to a bunch of little insignificant things!

So I put in the new plugs! 20240331_153652.jpg
Old ones seem to be pretty even in color.20240331_152528.jpgthen I dug out some knobs for the switch panel , have no idea if they are the right ones, but all I could find, turned em on, I have wiper motor & 3 speeds worked but no dash lights! 20240331_150211.jpg
I could not get them to snap in, didn't want to force too much not being sure they are correct? 20240331_150217.jpg
then I sanded on the door touch ups again, pass side I did a quick hand buff, I think I'm gonna call it a day on that, it's in the 5 foot range! 20240331_160020.jpgDrivers side worse, I think a blob of blue & then clear no sanding & call it done, maybe a 10 footer on this side! 20240331_161855.jpg& finally made up a brace for the battery tested my hole spacing20240331_163734.jpg
& then rounded em off a bit, 1st coat of paint is on in the garage. 20240331_165440.jpgAt least I can say some darn thing got done!
 
Last edited:
Starter doesn't work from key, jumper button at starter relay did work.
I hope I don't have that problem when I hook everything up again.
So this switch on my radiator, what does it get hooked up to, looks like vacuum lines?
If it was me it would get hooked up to the trash if I could find a blank plug to fit the hole, or nothing at all otherwise. TBH it seems like everyone of those I see are unplugged, similar to the doohicky* that is located on the passenger side firewall

Google found this that refers to the FSM but mentions spark control. Do you still need it? Doubtful but I'm not going to tell you no and later it turns out you do need it after all.
Vacuum hose routing on temperature operated by-pass valve (Radiator)

*Apparently the correct spelling is doohickey because doohicky presented a squiggly of misspelled word line. I wasn't surprised it was misspelled but expected it to have no suggestions.
 
The other car I think I had a few bad light bulbs, everything actually worked without too much tinkering,
guess I got lucky there, be off from the car a few days, grand kids over today & rain all week, maybe I'll read the manual a bit & google some questions & see what pops up?

I don't remember removing anything on that doohickEY (I got the line for the capitols!) I saw a pic on line that had some vacuum looking hoses on it?
 
Yeah I think those are vac hoses that connect to it so it seems to control a vacuum signal based on the engine temp. Your guess is as good as mine on where those hoses go, but the FSM or a vac routing diagram should show you.
 
Just took a look at the body manual, not a lot of help, didn't even see a mention of the seat belt buzzer or ignition switch, the switch I may have missed, will look again when my head clears!
Gonna go google some questions & see what pops up!
 
I saw that top valve somewhere, my car didn't have it looks to be mounted on or near the water piump, don't have the air intake one at the bottom either, guess I'll either plug the hole or just leave it, the emission stuff is a gonner anyway.
 
OK, at least I can check the ignition switch, checked it, just have to plug in 2 leads, instructions say all models cept valiant.
lever works without the key set up. 20240401_161347.jpg
 
If you don't have the OSAC valve on your firewall, don't worry about the radiator switch. Run the distributor direct to the ported spark fitting on the carb--the one that has no vacuum at idle, but vacuum the instant the throttle moves. If you want to remove that ghastly thing, you can. It should be NPT threads, but I'm not sure of the size. My brain says 1/4" but I don't have one in front of me, obviously.

The timing can be off by quite a bit and the car will still start. You're definitely close enough on the balancer marks.
While I much prefer to have the timing mark at 10°BTDC, it can be done at 0°. You'll just need to get after the timing shortly after it starts. Since I don't think you're doing a cam break-in, it's not as big a deal. If you are, that's a different story.
The distributor drive gear isn't quite where it's supposed to be, but if you don't want to mess with it you can make up the difference in the plug wires. Like Bob said, install the distributor, but make sure the rotor's pointing as forward as possible. If you've not moved the crank, rotate the distributor body until the rotor's directly under a plug wire. That's your #1 plug wire. Then go 8, 4, 3, 6, 5, 7, and 2 clockwise from there. As long as you're near TDC on #1's compression stroke, it should fire. If you're @ TDC exhaust, expect a very-loud bang and significant muffler damage--like the former will be deafening and may result in a police visit, and the latter will require at least one new muffler.
 
BTW, Rusty: Received the package with the contents in good condition, regardless of the beating the box took. Thank you very much, kind sir.
 
Oh, one more thing: The little "rotating arrow" on the dash dimmer should be yellow, while the one for the wipers should be blue. ;)
 
OK, since one is worn off that can be blue, got lots of blue paints left over!

Any thoughts on why they don't push in all the way?

I did have the oil pump out, I'm just leery of screwing something up, next nice day I'll see if it comes up easy if so I'll point it more forward.

Will have my electric hat on the next few nice days trying to get the key to work & a dozen other electric problems to try & sort out.
Did I mention I hate car electric work!!!

I'm almost hoping it's not the ignition switch, tearing into the column scares me.

more boxes to come if I ever get this car done!

No cam break in only new push rods & back to the factory rockers.

Damn to bad I unloaded most of my pipe & brass fittings after I retired, probably had it, have to dig around the little bit I kept?
 
Reading a bunch of posts about both no reaction from key & that seat belt system, got a few easy things to try before I tear it all apart!
try starting in neutral, if no go try grounding the neutral safety wire at the starter relay.
Some lights were mentioned as going through the seat belt system also, maybe why my dash lights are out?
& then try my new ignition switch, after that all fails I'm lost!
 
K since the rain won't go away I thought I would do a continuity test on the new ignition switch.
Then I could do the same on mine while it's still in the column.

So I wrote down connections, 1st click nothing 2nd click red closes to blue & the fatter black, figure this is the "run" position & finally over to start & red closes to fat yellow & brown, yellow is the start wire, will have to trace the brown, book says igi. 2 not sure what that does.
There's a skinny black under those got no reading there & 2 empty slots below that, in the book they are marked
yellow = start
black = accessory
blue = igi 1
brown = igi. 2
red battery hot
skinny black there's a 0 next to it in the book

book shows 2 yellows below that for that pesky key buzzer my new switch has no yellow wires at all.
which would be fine by me I can't get the buzzer to turn off!
 
I don't think it's the ignition switch, but it certainly doesn't hurt to check.

OK, since one is worn off that can be blue, got lots of blue paints left over!
The correct color for the wiper/washer knob arrow is a very light powder or baby blue, non-metallic.

Any thoughts on why they don't push in all the way?
Not really, but the wiper knob should protrude a little because the washer pump is run by pushing in on it. Try reversing the knobs. The yellow one might go further onto the dimmer shaft than it does the washer shaft, but that's just a "try it & see" experiment. I have nothing to verify that it should or would.

I did have the oil pump out, I'm just leery of screwing something up, next nice day I'll see if it comes up easy if so I'll point it more forward.
If you do, the slot in the pump drive should be pointing at (approximately) the driver's side front intake-manifold bolt. If it's off by a little in either direction, don't sweat it. I doubt the factory did.

Will have my electric hat on the next few nice days trying to get the key to work & a dozen other electric problems to try & sort out.
Did I mention I hate car electric work!!!

I'm almost hoping it's not the ignition switch, tearing into the column scares me.
Reading a bunch of posts about both no reaction from key & that seat belt system, got a few easy things to try before I tear it all apart!
try starting in neutral, if no go try grounding the neutral safety wire at the starter relay.
Some lights were mentioned as going through the seat belt system also, maybe why my dash lights are out?
& then try my new ignition switch, after that all fails I'm lost!
Back when we were neck-deep in that stuff, I tried without success to find a schematic for that module. Since I scarcely know how it works, it's hard to give ideas to try in order to remove it from the system, or at least bypass it. I don't have all the wiring diagrams available to me here, but I do at home somewhere. One thing would be to bypass the seat & seatbelt switches, but if the module's bad that wouldn't really help. The trick, of course, is that we don't know how the prior owner(s) went about bypassing it other than some scary-looking wiring.

Regardless, I'm pretty certain it should run as-is, module-wise.

The first thing I'd do is use check to see if your backup lamps work. They're on the same transmission switch. No reverse lights? It's either the switch or the wiring to/from it. Did you replace the switch? If so, try the old one if it's still lying around.
If the backup lights work, use a test light or DMM at the ground wire at the starter relay. Put one probe on battery +, and probe the brown/yellow wire at the starter relay. With the car in park or neutral, a test light should illuminate or a DMM would show ~12V. If that's not the case, then run a ground wire to the starter relay at the neutral-safety switch connection. See if it starts that way. If it does, it's either the switch itself or the wiring to it. Yes, you can have working reverse lights but no grounding circuit.
Still nothing? Get under the car and check the center pin on the NSS switch. Same test as at the starter relay; it should be grounded in Park or Neutral. If it is, double-check all your wiring to the NSS, including that the plug is 100% engaged on the switch and the mid-harness connector is fully engaged. Make sure the wires in the mid-harness connector are configured correctly (especially if you're using the harness I sent you, which had different colors). Chrysler occasionally switched pin locations for no good reason.
 
I'll start with the easy one, blue will probably be left over engine paint.
I think I already tried switching the knobs but will have to, to get the correct colors anyway!

I didn't check reverse lights, but I had nothing to the rear when the front lights lit, may have to solve that first?

will try the easy stuff first, try in neutral, check that ground to the brown wire at the relay

At least I have a couple things to get me started, if the rain ever clears out of here, looks like it may clear tomorrow!
 

SiteLock

SiteLock
Back
Top