1970 Charger 440 wont start

[Dominic Torreto]

Hello, I bought a 1970 charger 500 with a 440 swap from South Dakota. The car does run pretty good and shifted into reverse and the other gears good as well. On top of that it did start up good while I was at SD but the guy wanted to keep the battery and I told him he could have it. He gave me a bad battery to use as a core return for a new one. When I got to Indiana I bought a new Duralast Gold battery and it was the best one they carried at autozone and the car did not start up or even made a cranking noise nothing turned on at all and on top of that no lights or noises came from inside or outside the car.Okay, I did find two wires. One is totally cut off and it is black with a ball point end(similar to a spark plug but a lot smaller) that looks like it was connected to a black area on the firewall(driver side). I also found a dark blue wire with one end cut off and the other two plugs missing(near the passenger side behind engine). There is a 3 plug ins that come from the alternator that are green and are disconnected. I also notice a plug that is behind the engine(middle) that has nothing going to it. I also was wanting to know since my engine was a swap on how to identify if it is the 1968-70 440 mopar or if it is of the 71-74 series(they may be the same dont know). How can I tell will the number near firing order allow me to find out or no Please guys I do need advise here. One last thing to add the wire under the car has a red wire not connected(tranny wire) would this not allow the car to start up? Thanks community

 

[Ron 73]

First, Welcome aboard the forum! Lots of great folks, information and help... Ok the link below will take you to a place where you can download a wiring diagram for your Charger, Look in the 70 section for 70 Charger schematic A and B one for front of car one for back.. You may want to save them to a folder in case you ever need them again they will be handy..

http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=27

This started before and all you did was take a battery out and put a new one in, so it should be the same if the battery is a good one, I have bought a new battery at Auto Zone and after a day of grief took it back and it even tested good, I said i wanted another and the problem was solved so don't think that new there's nothing wrong with it, it is a possibility.. You can use the diagrams and see where these wires go, they are color coded, unless things have changed.
I would at least use a multi meter (any parts store has them cheap) set on 20 DVC and see what it says, which a new fully charged battery should be about 14 volts, It sounds like there is no juice at all in it, no clicking, noise and lights... Id start there before anything. Check all your connections and make sure there tight, starter relay, solenoid, grounds ect.. Mopar loves grounds, seems funny his battery worked and put a brand new one in and nothing, something could have come loose getting it back home its a possibility, but id check battery first.

There is numbers on the side of your block you need to get to find out the info you want.. This is a couple some things to get you started in the AM... Good luck with it.

 

[has2bmopar]

If you hooked something up wrong at any point, you may have fried the fusable link, and this would basically feed most of your car. Don't replace it with standard wire if it is bad, replace it with a length of new fusable link.

Never depend on red or black when hooking up your battery cables, always follow which cable/wire goes to a ground on your block, this will be your negative/ground on vehicles with an alternator... Mopar since '61.

As far as the year of your 440, (assuming there is not an A/C compressor in the way) look next to the distributor hold down bracket on top of a milled boss there will be a stamping... D440 for '68, E440 for '69 etc.

 

[Dominic Torreto]

Okay I did notice the neutral switch on the transmission is not connected(red wire) will this stop the car from cranking?

 

[moparstuart]

turn on the key and try to jump across the starter relay on the fire wall with a big screw driver

 

[Dominic Torreto]

The neutral relay safety switch/tranny wire is not the problem I fixed that and still nothing going to try the starter relay idea.

 

[Dominic Torreto]

keep giving me advise and stories similar to this on how they got fixed/common trouble shoots

 

[Ron 73]

You said there was nothing... "car did not start up or even made a cranking noise nothing turned on at all and on top of that no lights or noises came from inside or outside the car'
If the battery is good i think has2bmopar has a good idea and id check on that to..

 

[Dominic Torreto]

Update guys the dome light and the middle console light came on. I think I am on to something. The battery was almost dead I am letting it charge on the Charger I will let you guys know how I did. I am giving you guys all thank points but I still need more support till then on this post. Thank You community!!!

 

[Dominic Torreto]

Also, Could someone tell me what the Dark blue wires in the back of the engine go to? Also on the Driver side fire wall there is a broken black wire with a ball point end what does this go to and do? Definitely appreciate these questions awnsered.

 

[tpodwdog]

a new battery DOES NOT mean that its a good battery!. always start with the simplest things first!

 

[Sixer]

If that's their best battery, hate to see what the half-assed model would do. Something weird here-been auto parts guy for 35+ years, have NEVER seen a battery come off the shelf and be dead to the point where it wouldn't crank a motor. Low, maybe, but dead? Something strange here.

 

[99ss]

Do you have the shop manual yet for the car? First thing you should purchase. It will answer 99.9% of your questions and be the most valuable tool you own

 

[Dominic Torreto]

Do you have the shop manual yet for the car? First thing you should purchase. It will answer 99.9% of your questions and be the most valuable tool you own

I tried looking up a haynes manual nothing popped up a member showed me a 60 dollar book but could you give me a link to this. ALso if my car doesnt start with the battery being charged(I am going to try starting it up at 6 pm eastern time) and with the dome light coming on what does this mean and what should I do next?

 

[99ss]

Its not a haynes .. I got mine from ebay and no its not cheap but its extensive.. you can rebuild your car from it its about 5 inches thick

I would look at the balast resistor and starter relay.. if you have wires broken under the hood you need to know where they go... you really need the shop manual ..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1970-PLYMOU...970|Make:Plymouth&hash=item20be541e75&vxp=mtr

But I guess you have a Dodge..LOL
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1970-CHARGE...Parts_Accessories&hash=item1e67567095&vxp=mtr
•Factory Authorized Reproduction
•Charger, Coronet
•approx 800 pages
•Body, Chassis, Engine, Drivetrain & Electrical
•Wiring diagrams


this book is your best friend

I dont know the colors off the top of my head.. but in order for the car to get power to the starter it needs a few things to be in order.. thats where the manual will show the routing.. the neutral safety switch can be bi-passed as well... not recommeded cause it will start in gear and take off...LOL

 

[moparstuart]

some detailed pictures of your whole starter relay wiring harness plug area on the fire wall would help greatly ,

 

[99ss]

good idea ^^

 

[moparstuart]

mine had so many options and so much stuff going on I cant get you a great shot

 

[Moparpwrstude]

Hi,

No one mentioned 1970, which would be "F440" on the pad next to the distributor, HP or HP2 (HP and HP2 designate a high performance block-internals) would be an added bonus.The date code and block casting numbers are on the side of the block, if it's #2536430 it's a 66-72 block, #3698330 means it's 73-78 440. The build date is above the block stamping(passenger side on a 70).
On 68 and later there are numbers stamped on the lower rail just above the oil pan on a small pad that will have the vin serial and a letter designation([FONT=verdana, arial, helvetica]PT - Trenton Plant, B - [/FONT]Hamtramck, MI) for which plant built it. Head casting numbers will be seen by removing a valve cover.

Paul

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[99ss]

I need to look at that on mine ..LOL I have no idea what 440 I have