No Start Chrysler Traveler

[GrumpyJim]

Over the weekend. I got my Traveler out of storage. Started fine and made it to the house fine. Shut the car off and ate lunch. Came out after about a half hour. No start. It does have an electric fuel pump which is not powering on. The horn stopped functioning and I no longer have turn signals. Th tip off for the turn signal was the flashing courtesy lamp for the E brake no longer flashes.  Any Ideas? I was thinking the flasher unit took a crap. What should I be checking?

[Dave72dt]

Voltage drop tests.  You can start with a simple test light or be more precise with a Volt-Ohm meter.  Something may have stuck on after you turned the car off and drained the battery, you may have corrosion on cables, connections, grounds, bad battery.  Just because you have voltage does not mean a connection can carry the amp load.  Does the starter turn the engine over?  Power at the amp gauge?  Both sides of it?  Spark from coil?

[Sniper]

Unless your flasher is running all the other things that don't work I wouldn't suspect it off the top of my head period does anything electrical work?

[Tom Skinner]

Grumpy Jim,

I agree with Sniper. Electrical Problems need solving. You may just eat up your Battery messing with the unknown.

Time to re-wire and re-ground where necessary.

Good Luck!

Tom

[Los_Control]

Tough call and from the information you have given, I doubt anyone here can tell you what it is.

 

I do not think that a flashing e-brake light is stock ..... the electric fuel pump is not stock ..... I'm thinking your car has been rewired.

Thats perfectly fine. ..... Is it still 6 volt or 12 volt? ..... there are so many things a person can do when they re-wire a car.

 

I bet @Sniper has more crap wired on his car then any 1950's car thought of having.

Then there are those that were taught in the 40's and did more crap then should be allowed.

 

Nobody knows what you have by your description. ..... When multiple items goes out at one time .... I suspect possibly a fuse or a junction box ..... something that powers multiple items.

 

It might be easiest to start with the fuel pump and trace the wiring back to where it gets power. Then figure out why it has no power.

 

Just saying, your issue is not a stock factory wiring problem.

You will need a test light and trace the problem back to the origin. ..... starting at the end of the line, the fuel pump and working forwards might be the easiest way.

[desoto1939]

did this car come with any circuit breaker on the headlight switch?

 

did you leave the ignition switch turned on when you parked the car?  Might have burned the points and they are stuck together.  Pull the dizzy cap and rotor to inspect this area. Check that the wires are all connected to the voltage regulator. Maybe the points need to be cleaned or adjusted in the voltage regulator.

 

Rich hartung

desoto1939@aol.com

[Sniper]

20 minutes ago, Los_Control said:

I bet @Sniper has more crap wired on his car then any 1950's car thought of having.

You know you got me to thinking. To the best of mine knowledge there are only three items on my car that are part of the vehicles original electrical system. The starter, the horns and the ignition switch. Everything else has either been updated or replaced or both lol. I do not run the stock generator and voltage regulator setup. That's been replaced with the same system an 87 Dodge Diplomat would have. The entire wiring harness has been replaced because the one that was in the car when I bought it was a hacked in Universal hot rod kit. The headlights are LED the heater fan is later Model 12 volt. I do have some additional electrical items to add to it. Backup lights, map light, interior dome light. But I suppose the thing Los is thinking of, is the dual throttle body fuel injection system.  Oh yeah the distributor is still original Style but I have the parts to convert it to electronic ignition. And no I'm not going pertronix

Edited July 16 by Sniper

[Los_Control]

I'm only suggesting the post @GrumpyJim made, suggest non stock wiring.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that ..... just depends who replaced the wiring in what decade. ...... Possible they were running shine and have a few extra electrical oddities to it.

 

We know nothing with the information provided.

[Doug&Deb]

Possibly the horn relay? Doesn’t a lot of the wiring run through it? I agree with voltage drop testing as others have mentioned. 

[GrumpyJim]

The flashing Courtesy lamp is stock. It flashes to remind the driver to release the parking brake. Once the hand brake is released, the lamp stops flashing. The car will turn over but does not start due to the electric fuel pump not engaged. When the ignition is turned on, the fuel gauge does begin to move. The starter button does engage the starter. Outside of the electric fuel pump and add on fog lamps, everything else is as it left the factory.

[Sniper]

Seems simple to me you need to make sure the fuel pump has power in a good ground. If it does it's a bad fuel pump if not you need to figure out what you lost and where you lost it

[Sam Buchanan]

20 hours ago, GrumpyJim said:

What should I be checking?

 

Pretty much everything.

 

Not trying to be snippy but you are just going to have to do some electrical troubleshooting, something we can't do via the internet. There are dozens of places where current can be interrupted and it only takes one fault. Hope the problem is easy to find.

[greg g]

First thing I would check is the connection of the rimary battery cable to the battery side of the starter solenoid.  Corrosion on any of those connectors can cause a bunch of faults especially with ignition off accessories. Next check that the ground cable condition and connections.  Don't know how the Chrysler is wired but head lights, brake IIght, dome light, courtesy/glove box light trunk lamp should all work with ignition switched off.  Some horns are wired this way, some need switch on to sound.  This terminal is where most of the cars electrical items get power.  Next the connections to and from the Ammeter.  Does turning the switch to the acc position power any thing up?  Not impossible for internal switch contacts to get corroded in storage and not work as they should.  Spray some electrical cleaner into the key slot and then cycle key in, rotate switch, remove key, repeat... cover your carpet so cleaner doesn't stain it.

 

Had a car years ago that was having electrical issues.  Turned out to be a stuck switch for the glove box light.  As it was high summer and not doing much night driving, I didn't notice it till it started getting dark earlier and I saw light leaking past the door when I shut the car off.

 

Electrical gremlins can drive a body nuts.  Good luck.

[GrumpyJim]

Did some more digging last night. I am looking for this regulator. I can find the main regulator but cannot locate this smaller one. The brass bit on the side is a fuse holder and the stray blue ended wire is my electric fuel pump. 

[Sniper]

That is not a regulator it is more likely your horn relay

[Tom Skinner]

That is your Transmission Selenoid. Check the Fuse other than that it just controls your Fluid Drive Transmission.

Horn Relay and Starter Selenoids find and repair bad connections, and make sure juice is getting to fuel pump as Sniper has stated.

Likely you have the problem in your Distributer if you don't have spark at the spark plugs or a bad coil

Not knocking people for electric fuel pumps, but I never needed one for fifty years of owning these old buses

My opinion the points or coil are bad or you knocked it out of time turning the Distributer in an attempt to start it

[GrumpyJim]

I believe the horn relay is just below that.

[GrumpyJim]

2 minutes ago, Tom Skinner said:

That is your Transmission Selenoid. Check the Fuse other than that it just controls your Fluid Drive Transmission.

Horn Relay and Starter Selenoids find and repair bad connections, and make sure juice is getting to fuel pump as Sniper has stated.

Likely you have the problem in your Distributer if you don't have spark at the spark plugs or a bad coil

Not knocking people for electric fuel pumps, but I never needed one for fifty years of owning these old buses

My opinion the points or coil are bad or you knocked it out of time turning the Distributer in an attempt to start it

I don't have power to the electric fuel pump. (which is wired to this solenoid) I do not turn signals or horns.

[Tom Skinner]

yup and if it don't blow with the key on it don't work but as I have said one most certainly have spark delivered to No.1 plug at TDC to start these cars.

Do a Static Time and it will probably start baring a bad coil, or points

[Tom Skinner]

Bad Wire then. Look you know what opinions are like - everyone has one. Static Time the engine check for spark. I have found reading these Threads for ever that those electric fuel pumps are nothing but a PITA. Do you have fuel to the Carb? It must be born in mind One must have Spark, Fuel, and Comppression to Start an Engine. Endeavor to go back to the mechanical one if at all possible. 

[joecoozie]

I was able to go to the car (this past Sunday per a request by the owner) to check out the issue.

I am a little leery about posting what happened (nothing bad) because I don't want it to seem like I am "jumping" over/past the owner before he comes back here and posts the outcome.

 

[GrumpyJim]

Sorry. I was away for a while. Here is what I posted @ AACA forum...

Just wanted to say thank you to Joe Cocuzza. He offered to look at my Traveler to see if we could get it started since, I am not that tech savvy on older cars. Joe offered to come to my house to take a look. He lives about 30 minutes away. He gave me some tips on troubleshooting the electrical system. Told me what to look for on older Chryslers. He brought along a spare Trans relay to see if mine had failed. Fortunately, that was ruled out. (They are quite expensive to replace) As it turned out, the "hot" wire from the ignition switch lost power to the relay. So, a temporary wire was run from the ignition switch to the trans relay. Fortunately, the Chrysler now starts and runs like before. I just need to find the interruption in the original powered wire. Thanks again Joe.

[GrumpyJim]

Just want to add. Joe is a genuine, nice guy. He went out of his way to help a fellow hobbyist. I hope that i may be able to return the favor someday.