rereaves

Thanks for feedback

Thanks for feedback very helpful

Great feedback, I will follow your suggestions. Looks like I'm in for a real interesting troubleshooting project. Yes, I have a shop manual with wiring diagram. At first everything was pointing too bad grounds then I heard or read about positive ground and everything become confusing

Thank you for all your help. I now have turn signals they are very weak. I pulled the headlight beam and found no power. Tried exercising the dimer switch no luck. Bulb looks ok but without power who knows. Will continue to trace wires. Again thanks

Thanks again for the info on the electrical system. I will follow through on your suggested possible causes for headlight and brake light issues. I just can not get my head around a positive ground system. All I can think of is attaching the positive battery cable to the motor and creating one large welding machine. I now realize after doing some reading and asking that 6 volt positive ground was more common than I thought. Just how do you attach the positive battery cable to ground without creating a large spark? I'm planning on purchasing new larger wire size battery cables, looks like what's on the car is 12 volt cables. I'm also wondering if someone started to convert to 12 volt but never finished. The Gen, Starter and Voltage Reg look like OEM equipment. Like I mention in one of my reply's I changed the coil. I just went to NAPA and told them I wanted a 6volt coil for 48 Dodge. I simply wired the same way as old coil. The old coil case was split open by what I assume was clamp pressure. The battery I purchased is not what I want, the Cranking Amps are around 750 and the physical size of the battery is too small for the battery tray. I think I have found a local source but have not checked it out. I will also start searching part numbers for things like the starter, gen and other electrical components as you suggested. Can you tell me the physical location of brake switch. I can not find anything near the brake pedal or master cylinder? My shop manual does not show a picture or discuss that I can find. Thanks Again

Thanks I will stomp the hell out of it tomorrow.

This is what I have done, not knowing the issue with positive ground. The car is 6 volt neg ground. I installed a new battery, coil, points, condenser, plug wires and plugs. The car seems to start fine however the battery has a hard time cranking over the motor. I assume this is typical 6 volt issue. Taillights work, no brake lights. Headlights do not work and no turn signals. Amp meter is stable, heater fan works, fuel gage is all over the place, oil pressure is around 40, radio does not work. My first thought is a ground problem however I do not understand positive ground impact on those items not working.

I recently installed a new battery, coil, points and condenser along with new plug wires. Since I did not know about positive ground, I simply installed the coil and placed the wires in the same location. I can't remember what coil post and wire I used but it seems to work. The Amp meter is stable even during acceleration, no needle swings. The gas gage is another issue it bounces all over the place. Heater fan motor works, however dash lights do not work. Brake lights do not work but tail lights work. Head lights do not work, along with turn signals. I'm assuming that I have a ground problem but not sure since this car is new to me.

Thanks for the feedback, I think I'm going to leave it neg ground. The car starts fine and most of the electrical items seem to work, less radio and headlights.

Thanks I will work on dimmer switch to see if that helps