[DUFF]

so i gots me a little electrical glitch with the dodge. when i disconnect the + terminal from the battery, with the ignition turned off, as soon as the cable disconnects from the battery the motor turns over half a turn. any ideas out there? BTW, it's nice to be back 

[ElectricSquid]

With the battery disconnected, there should be NO stored energy anywhere.
But in your case, it seems as if there is.

Possible sources of this mysterious energy might be

• Amplifier
• Stereo
• CB
• any capacitor you've added in (like for the sub-woofer)

Do you have any of these items installed?

[DUFF]

nope. no radio, cb, amp, woofers, nothing. hell, i don't even have blinkers.

[ElectricSquid]

That just sounds weird to me.

Come to think of it, when I redid my wiring and screwed with the starter, I vaguely remember mine doing that too. But since, I've ripped all the wiring out and went back with something so far from stock that you wouldn't recognize it as truck wiring.

I bet Eric knows what the issue is...

[intenseimages]

you guys hit me just as i woke up. good to see you back Duff. I took a hiatus myself for a while.

Seems like a vague itch in the back of my head on the solution. and it seems like it is specifically a dodge thing. hopefully i will be able to answer by tonight.

if not it will strike me in the middle of my fishing trip 200miles away from a 'puter. I will check back i ntonight before i take off and hopefully have an answer for you.

eric

[DUFF]

so i have some real rats nest wiring on the ol' dodge. it looks like there is a method to it's madness but it's been a long time since i tackled any dodge wiring. i've got lots of questions-like what the heck is the orange diagnostic box on the fender??

[DUFF]

?

[DUFF]

i have a constant draw on the battery. i had the battery charger hooked up for 2 days and it never got over 2/3 of the total charge. disconnect the + terminal {that's when it turns over} and 10 minutes later there was a full charge reading. connect the cable, turn the motor over a few times and back down to a 2/3 reading.

[DUFF]

and it all ends up in this mess of a dash. you can see the ignition wires hanging out of the dash. you have to turn the key all the way on and turn the switch hanging out of the dash at the same time.

[ElectricSquid]

Dude, thats a friggin nightmare mess.
I suggest a complete rewire.

Here's a homemade diagram for the important stuff.
Just a few wires for the ignition and starter to work. Everything else is fluff


Do a site search for the word ignition and you'll find the other diagrams that I drew up that go with that one.
The rest of them deal with the HEI conversion and the Dual Ignition Mod that I'm now running.



I also had a constant drain on my battery before my rewire. It would read a 8v. drain even with the key off. That's why I installed the "main kill-switch". I got tired of using the battery jump box to start the damn truck every time I took too long in Lowes.

[ElectricSquid]

Diagnostic connector?
What year is that truck?
I didn't know they even had those in 1958

Really, if you don't use it, I'd follow the wires back to where they come from, clip'em, and remove that thing.
You'd be amazed at how many wires you can remove out of one of these trucks and they'll still run. I got a whole trashcan full of wires and useless components out of mine. It runs great now
(have you found the "service engine" box behind the glove box yet?)

The advantage of removing wires and components you don't use is that once all that stuff is gone, you can make sense of the wires that still remain. The added bonus is that you'll probably remove a short or two in the process. I know I did. I'm not sure what wire or component was the cause, but I do know it's no longer in there

[DUFF]

i'm going to have ta do the same thing that i did with the cj and do a wire by wire replace job but i think this one will be a heck of a lot easier with that diagram you made! that thing looks awesome {so much so that i'm goinhg to blow it up a bit and laminate it}!

[DUFF]

ya' know, i'm sitting here looking at that diagram and i'm liking it more and more. EVERY FREAKIN TIME i look at a wiring diagram i think the same friggen thing- "why doesn't somebody make one of these i can read???" now i know that countless other people have made homemade diagrams but this one is not only easy to read and understand, it also looks cool. karma for you.

[ElectricSquid]

I had the same problem. They're always in black and white, with notations for the wires like jl-16-rbl
When I did the dual ignition, I needed a set of diagrams to go with it that even a dumbass could read (in case I ever sold the truck or died)

Anyway, I need to redo that basic Mopar Ignition diagram as a stand-alone diagram.
It's actually an extract of the BSA Dual Ignition Mod diagram.
See if you can understand the diagram in that link.

[DUFF]

all ready read and commented on 

[DUFF]

hey, how do i check the coil{ besides replacing it with a new one } to see if it's any good? i think my short is in the ignition switch cause even with the key off there is still power going through it. also, the coil is pretty warm so i'm thinkinhg the reason why it won't fire up is cause the ignition switch fried it. i've got a pretty handy-dandy Actron cp7848  ohm tester that i know nothing about that i would love for someone to tell me how to use. 

[ElectricSquid]

i've got a pretty handy-dandy Actron cp7848  ohm tester that i know nothing about that i would love for someone to tell me how to use.

 
x2 on that one.

The way I did mine was I took the oportunity to upgrade to a MSD Blaster2

[DUFF]

allright, it looks like it might be the coil. with all wires from the coil disconnected and the ohm meter set at X1k,  there should be a reading of 10,000 - 11,000 ohms when the + lead is in the socket for the "coli to dist." and the - lead is touching the coils -. the reading i got was between 15,000 - 16,000, indicating a defective coil. soooooo, i'll pick up a new coil when i'm in town later and we shall see what happens. 

[DUFF]

FIXED!!! replaced the coil and she roared to life  better still, i fixed the current draw to the ignition but i will still be taking Waynes  diagram and run that set up. what's nice is now i can do it when i have the time and not just so i can move that death trap around. 

[DUFF]

got a "new" wiring harness given to me but really doesn't look a whole hell of a lot better  . guess i gotta break down and acctually do it the right way 

[DUFF]

Just went back and was re-reading the thread when I noticed the wiring diagram wayne came up with on responce #9 is gone! Wayne, can ya re-post it?