'87 5th Ave.

[Stroller]

Hey folks. Ok this is one of the strangest things I have ever seen. Have an '87 5th Ave. Has a 318 and rwd. Converted it from the wonderful lean burn. Used a carb from a '71 318, vacuum distributor, 6 wire plug from an '76 Cordoba, regular silver ignition box and a 2 pole ballast. This basically has nothing to do with it just to be clear it is not the computer problem.

Well it was working fine then dead. And I do mean dead. Put in a new battery with 12.46v. It is like there is no battery in it at all. It has about 6v to half the fuse block. 12v at battery post of alternator, and 2 poles are live, kind of at the plug for the amp, temp gauge circut board. Pulled the amp/temp block out and the poles for the amp gauge showed continuity the shunt leads nada. Put in a good unit. Put in a new lower ignition switch and nothing changes. Head lights do not even come on. The key buzzer works however. Found 1 fuseable link that lost power, put in a new one. The starter relay has 12v at the hot pole. All the leads going into the firewall are live.

Has the original battery cables and nothing has been put in other than changing the ignition. Any idea's other than a bon fire maybe?

 

[Big_John]

My first guess is a bad battery cable or a corroded/dirty connection at the cable ends. They will often still check 12volts, but they aren't good enough to pass any current.

 

[MONC440]

Well you have a power supply issue. The way I always address this is start at the battery and move to the first connection, check for power on both sides, move to the next, and repeat. Do you have the wiring diagrams for the car, if not that is a good start. Have you checked for power at the firewall junction block, under the hood and under the dash? Look at all the wires under the dash for melted or burnt wires (very common on Mopars). You say you have power to some of the fuses, some of you fuse block is hot all the time, others are hot with key on only. If the ones that are hot all the time have 12 volts and the other side is dead with key on or off you have a power supply issue thru the ignition switch.

 

[MONC440]

In my opinion Mopar always ran to many amps thru the dash switches, how many of use have had a headlight switch melt down because of all the amps flowing thru? That is why I try to control all things that carry a lot of amps with relays under the hood. ie headlights, cooling fans, power headlight door motors....

 

[CBODY67]

I agree with @Big_John, as I went through something similar when I put the Mopar Perf (when they were still Chrysler kits, from Chrysler, not licensed) elec ign kit on my '67 Newport. Got things done, started 4 times consistently, but nothing on the 5th try. Voltage everywhere! Still no start. New ign relay did NOT help!

I noticed a thin grunge hiding between the battery posts and the cable ends. Got an old wire brush cable end/post cleaner, cleaned things off, THEN it started as it should have. That grunge was enough to "gum up the works".

Just my experiences,
CBODY67