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No power

milit73

FBBO Gold Member
FBBO Gold Member
Local time
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Jun 28, 2011
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Location
Vacaville, Ca
I have no power to anything on the dash. I have been told that the circuit board to the rally dash to my 68 Superbee was fried but nothing else works loike the heater or wipers. Is there a main that feeds everything that I can check. I am just starting to trouble shoot this but thought I would ask now. My lights do work so that is a start. Thanks Jim
 
Remove the bulkhead connections on the firewall and check them for corrosion.
 
I will try that and if there is a problem with it what is the best way to clean it up? Electrical is not my thing but seems like I am going to start learing a lot about it. Thanks
 
If there is corrosion...which is almost a guarantee with these old Mopars, get a can of electrical contact spray cleaner from any auto parts store. Spray it inside the male and female parts of the connectors. You can start by scrubbing with a stiff toothbrush to get some of the crud off. I would take a file and scuff the metal contacts. After doing that, put some dielectric grease on the contacts before putting them back together. All the grease does is keep the air out to retard corrosion/oxidation.
 
Thanks for all the help. I have been asking a lot of questions and helping if I can and that is a big IF. I hope to get back over to the car in the next week or so and can wait until I can get it on the road to get it over to my house.
 
I found that my fusable link is not making good contact but was able to get it good well I thought as it would cut all power to the lights and key to start the car. I thought it was fixed so I then started to replace the Rally gauge with one that was "rebuilt" and now I have no power again.

Would changing out the gauges effect having no power to the key. My dome light also does not work now so no power to the inside at all. I think the fusable link is a problem and is there any way to get better contact to the bulkhead with this wire. Thanks Jim
 
That was my thought when I said clean the bulkhead. Only thing I can suggest is that you make sure the wires themselves are making proper contact to the pins, scuff the pins and that should do it. But I have seen wiring in these old mopars in various states of screwed. But just to confirm your suspicion you could always run an 8 gauge jumper wire through the firewall and bypass the bulkhead if you are inclined to do a little hacking around. But before you use a jump wire and hack it up just scuff the hell out of the pins and make sure the wires are making good contact with those pins. Not just on the outside of the firewall but the inside as well. Also....kinda sounds like when you were monkeying with the guage cluster perhaps that fuseable link wire was pulled loose from the inside. Just trace it and give it a good look over.
 
Yes I was installing a new Rally gauge that I bought years ago as the old one was no good but in doing so I lost the power I did have like the lights, key, and dome light. Also have a couple of wires that I found not hooked up so I am getting a color wiring diagram off of ebay if it covers the superbee and not just the normal coronet wiring. Here is a picture of the new "rebuild" rally guage
 

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Thanks again for the help. I can get over there once a week to work on the car so it gets frustrating when you go backwards but I was expecting this with trying to install the new gauges. Jim
 
Nice looking gauges. Good luck getting this sorted out. Electrical problems usually are the most irritating to solve. But be persistant, you will get it going I am sure.
 
Is it grounded by installing it to dash frame, in the wiring harness or a seperate wire all together?
 
Grounding

Just be sure you have some clean metal where it can make contact when you put the cluster in. It should ground thru some of the screws too. Let us know if it works. Good Luck Ronnie
 
I will hopefully have an answer on Monday. Thanks Again
 
Ok some progress today. Still not lights and bulbs are good. But the amp gauge, oil pressure, and looks like the temp gauge is working also but did not let it run that long. Blinker lights come on but no blinking as the rear lights are burnt out. So have to figure out the tac/clock, cluster lights and fan. I have checked the fuses by sight look good but also need to check for power at the fuse box. Any other ideas you guys might have let me know. Thanks
 
Are none of the cluster lights working or only the speedo/tach light work? If none are working then trace the wires for the lights to their source. Obviously you arent getting power on those lines if that is the case. A test light or voltmeter should answer that though. Also, did you monkey with the dimmer switch any to see if they would come on? Sometimes the dimmer switch will get bad spots in it. If the lights on all the small gauges are out then you need to make sure the twist in bulb holders that contact the circuit board are all making proper contact to the exposed copper on the board. Perhaps whomever did the refurb coated the copper areas to prevent oxidation and you didn't wipe it down before putting in the lights preventing good contact.

Just some clarification would help.

Regarding the lights "burnt out in the back" are you sure they are burnt? Check the trunk grounds for the light assemblies. That could cause the same effect.

The clock should just need a line with 12v to the battery to work. The tach should just need a line to the coil or wherever necessary based on your setup.

And what do you mean fan?
 
I tested the light bulbs with the help of some wire and the battery and they are good for the cluster but still no lights. I have limited amount of time on Mondays to work on my car so did not have time to trace that problem out. I will clean off the circuit board to make sure it is making good contact. As far as the rear lights I was planning on getting them but the parts store did not have them as they are missing or black on the inside so I did not even try them.

I have looked at a few things and the wiring has been messed with a little so the heater fan does not work with the switch but it looks like someone got it working by plugging it in with just a wire from the fuse box so I know the fan works just not by the switch as of yet. The wipers also do not work so I have some kind of power problem just have not traced it down yet. I did order a color wiring diagram and I hope that will help.

All in all things are going good with the car and could get a lot more done if the car was at my house and I hope it will be soon. Thanks again for all of your help.
 
Ok all of the problems have been fixed now or the problem has been found. Actually the switches are bad. I had to use the old 2 speed wiper switch and it is no good, the dimmer switch works but not that good maybe a good cleaning will help. Any suggestions on how to do that? The heater switch is bad also but had a replacement so that is all good. I traced all of the wires and found their power supply and crossed them without the switch to see if all of these things would work or not and they did so today was a good day.

If anyone has a good source for these switches let me know. Thanks again for everyones help. Jim:headbang:
 
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