Off to the Branson, Mo. Car Show (Update 5/4 HELP!)

Well....the day has come. Time to cut her loose and let her streach her legs on I-70. Grin

She seems ready. Taking my camera and video gear so I hopeing to post some pics from the MECCA show and the Cruise Across Kansas. Also hope to beat the storm leaving Denver so it's "gear up" at 0830.

What a trip! Left Denver in white-out conditions and it was slippery on 86 headed to Limon. Blu ran great till I noticed some detonation climbing a hill so I went to high test and backed down on the advance. Man, she loves to run. Stayed in KC,MO Thurs. night with vicious thunderstorms (worried about hail) and about 1AM the alarm went off. I sprang up and ran outside to the heaviest rain I've seen since a hurricane in Fl. I went back to sleep and 45 min. later a repeat. I dis-armed the alarm and slept thru the night. We woke up aroumd 7:30, cleaned up and left and I was thinking I would fill up before hitting I-70 so we went to the gas station. No power......went to the next one....no traffic lights anywhere. Then we spotted snapped power poles, trees split in half and power wires on the road. Blew me away!!!! We were 2 blocks away from where this happened and the Mopar Gods smiled on my car with nothing but 2 leaves on the hood. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

We're safely in Branson now and the weather looks to be good the next 4 - 5 days. We checked in at the MECCA show and there is a Yellow Super Bird (convertible) or Daytona I have to check out tomorrow.

Hope to see some members here but if not I'll do my best to spread the word about bbd sign

.
Jim

Hey guys,
After a mechanically perfect trip to Branson we got up Sat. morning to drive the 4 miles to the MECCA show. 2 miles in, the car shutdown (lost all electrical). I had replaced the fuseable link with a 10 ga wire and a 50 amp slo-blow fuse. I also installed a old amp which I had noticed was clicking on and off Sat morning. Well I climbed under the dash, unpluged the 25 amp fuse to the amp, replaced the 50 amp slo-blow fuse and tried firing it up. Also note that I rigged the slo-blow fuse 6 - 8 months ago and have had no problems so I'm convinced the amp blew it as it was connected down stream of the slo-blow. I had all power up (I thought) dash worked it cranked and everything, but it would not fire. A very nice Mo. State Trooper (Mopar nut) stopped to assist and after a few trips to the parts house I became convinced the Pertronics dist. was blown by the surge(see pic below, is the black ring of carbon normal?). He called a wrecker friend of his and gave me a ride out to the bone yard where he scored me a free electronic dist. from a 82 dodge 318. He also had his wrecker buddy load my car and take it and Pam the to MECCA show where Blu made her ungracious arrival "on the sled". I figured if anyone could figure the problem out the Mopar guys could and there might be parts there. The Trooper then delivered me to the show and dropped me off with the dist..

I want all of you to know how much this guy did for me. He spent 5 hours of his day driving me around to parts houses and bone yards. That was above and beyond the call of duty. My hat's off to him!

I dropped in the stock electronic dist. and hooked it up to the Pertronics Second Strike box. It still didn't fire. At that point I was convinced the box was blown. After that I decided I would have to find a stock points dist. and hot wire it in. A very nice guy, Larry, offered to drive me on a 2 hour round trip to his house where we pulled a dist. out of a 273 Coronet he had as a parts car. He charged me $80.00 for the gas and dist. Saved my ass. (Now I need to return the favor, he needs a 16 bolt, 4-V intake for a 318 wedge, the wide one. Does anyone have one?).

Well, due to the fact it wasn't running Pam decided we needed to rent a car so off she goes in a taxi and came back very pissed off that she had to pay $89.00 / day (plus ins.) and we can't return it till Mon. as this place "rolls up the sidewalks" on rentals at 3PM. I got the car fired up at the moment they announced the trophy presentation (right next to my car). Everyone had been standing around for the presentation and erupted into a round of applause upon hearing my car fire up. I stepped out and took a bow. I can fire it up by hooking up a wire from the resistor and touching it on the batt.+ while cranking. Once started I can pull it and it runs thru the ignition.

Now the simple fact of the matter is I mis-diagnosed this from the get go. With the ignition on we have power to the resistor BUT when cranking, no power. On the way back to the condo I noticed the turn signal indicators would lite but not blink, the brake lights don't work, the Viper system won't set (the blinking light on the unit is lite, keep in mind it's wired into the door switch lights). The stock AM radio works.

I know the first thing that's going to be suggested is the firewall connectors. When re-doing the engine compartment I pulled the connector block, cleaned each connector and re-assembled them using di-electric grease. Someone suggested the regulator took it out but I have EVERY electrical component under the hood brand new. Since overhaul the amp gauge is very steady and does not flicker up and down like alot do.

Since I "hot wired" in the stock points dist. I have not butchered any of the original wireing I did to hook-up the Pertronics system. I'm debating dropping the entire Pertronics system back in but the big question is do you think the carbon ring (not grease) is normal. I know there is alot of static build-up in there and it might just be attracting the carbon from the "fireing" area above.

I have the service manual for 69 Darts with me. Is the wireing the same on a 67?

The really sad news is I was so busy and frustrated that I never even took the time to walk around to look at the cars there so I have no pictures. Mattq was there, I hope he has some to share. I'm here till Thurs. so I hope you guys can help me out with some advice.

Thanks, in advance.
Jim