Park brake kills engine

Kern Dog said:

Blame Trudeau....

Click to expand...

Kern Dog said:

Blame Trudeau....

Click to expand...

slimt said:

Yup.. hes a idiot..

Click to expand...

Fran Blacker said:

Wire rubbing on parking brake lever? Wore through insulation grounding/ shorting.

Click to expand...

idrivemopar said:

Is it a column shift?

I ask because if car is a column shift, the wire for the gear select indicator lamp runs up on the same harness as the ignition, and that bulb is tied in with the brake indicator light, dash lights, there could be a short in the column harness.

Click to expand...

Canada440 said:

Just finished some upgrades on my 74 roadrunner. Didn't do any changes to wiring so this problem might have been there for a while. Did a rear disc brake conversion and rebuilt front end steering and suspension. Went to fire it up tonight, didn't notice park brake was pushed down slightly, car would fire when starter engaged but would die as soon as starter released. Found park brake partially pressed when wire to the switch at park brake pedal was getting hot. Released park brake fully and engine ran fine again. If I push park brake with engine running it dies.
Any ideas?

Click to expand...

Shorthorse said:

Halifaxhops is correct. That circuit carries ground. The switch is normally open with one side to ground. When activated/closed it delivers that ground to the lamp in the dash cluster via the printed circuit connector, terminal "B".
That switch wire is more than likely shorted to a switched positive potential. With a meter or test light, look for + on that wire with the ignition on and the parking brake off.
You said it would start but die when the start position was released. One place to look would be the bulkhead terminal. All those related wires are in plug #3 pins 22, 23 & 24.

http://www.mymopar.com/downloads/1974/74SatelliteRoadRunnerA.JPG
http://www.mymopar.com/downloads/1974/74SatelliteRoadRunnerB.JPG

Click to expand...