1970 RR No power at ignition

[dcoland70RR]

Hello all I am new here. 1970 Roadrunner factory 383 4 speed. This is the dream car of my life, 1970 orange roadrunner finally got it a little over a year ago in original great condition. So over a week ago I had no power at the ignition but all lights worked. I had a new MSD system I was planning on installing in the winter when I might pull the factory motor and beef it up. So I decided to install new MSD Distributor, 6AL ignition box, coil and wires. After install still no power at ignition so I decided to plug back in the original coil ballast resistor wires that I just tapped off cuz MSD paperwork said I didn't need it anymore with MSD set up. Well plugged resistor back in yesterday and started right up. So figured maybe that wiring provides power to the ignition some how cuz I don't know wiring much. Well ran it several times yesterday and all good. Went out there just now to time the new distributor and NO POWER AT IGNITION/KEY? I am lost for words. The fuse box that provides power to the headlights and dome light has power but the center fuses that go to the gauges has no power. Car has newer starter, Neutral safety switch, Starter relay and on and on. IS IT WIRING IN DASH SOME WHERE? HELP PLEASE?

 

[dcoland70RR]

Hello all I am new here. 1970 Roadrunner factory 383 4 speed. This is the dream car of my life, 1970 orange roadrunner finally got it a little over a year ago in original great condition. So over a week ago I had no power at the ignition but all lights worked. I had a new MSD system I was planning on installing in the winter when I might pull the factory motor and beef it up. So I decided to install new MSD Distributor, 6AL ignition box, coil and wires. After install still no power at ignition so I decided to plug back in the original coil ballast resistor wires that I just tapped off cuz MSD paperwork said I didn't need it anymore with MSD set up. Well plugged resistor back in yesterday and started right up. So figured maybe that wiring provides power to the ignition some how cuz I don't know wiring much. Well ran it several times yesterday and all good. Went out there just now to time the new distributor and NO POWER AT IGNITION/KEY? I am lost for words. The fuse box that provides power to the headlights and dome light has power but the center fuses that go to the gauges has no power. Car has newer starter, Neutral safety switch, Starter relay and on and on. IS IT WIRING IN DASH SOME WHERE? HELP PLEASE?

UPDATE. New to this site but love the information I can find. So i read some older conversations relating to no power problems and found what I needed. The b body has three 8 plug wiring harness that plug into the top driver side of the engine bay firewall. One for front lights, one for engine wires, and believe one for rear lights. Any how, the 2015 conversation I read some one posted a message saying to check these old wire harness plugs by carefully disconnecting them and checking if the plugs are dirty or need replacement. When I pulled of mine the center 8 plug on the firewall is for the engine wiring. Well that plug had a lot of built up crud for the blue wire that is suppose to be for coil ignition power. And at that same time I found out the hard way someone drilled through this factory plug at one wire spot to wire straight through to behind the dash for something. Time to re wire the car for me in the winter to update it and make newer, cleaner, stronger and safer. But in the meantime a good spray of brake cleaner and scrapped out the build up of grime in the plug and the ROADRUNNER starts right up and sounds awesome with the flowmaster exhaust and headers I recently put on myself. Old wiring looks okay but going on 47 years probably would be good to replace it all with factory replacement new wire assemblies.

 

[Basket case]

first welcome, and glad you figured it out! now.....

show off that Beeper!

 

[NJRR]

Welcome. Say hi in the welcome wagon and post some car **** !!!! ( pics of your ride)

 

[Budnicks]

It sounded like the "fusible link" blown symptoms at 1st

good to hear you found something

70 B-body Belvedere GTX RR diagram

the 69 B-body is almost the same
I have a better photos of them

always when you deal with the "bulkhead connectors"
be very careful taking them apart & they can be very brittle,
clean them well, get into both sides,
try to get corrosion/oxidation or even rust off/out
some electronics cleaner is great too leaves no residues,
IMO use a little bit {not gobs of it} of dielectric grease
on all connections too, it will help to stop the oxidation/corrosion
& help to keep most moisture out too...

M&H Electrical Fabricators Inc. http://www.wiringharness.com/
exclusively available only thru "Year One" unfortunately
makes all of the OE harnesses, & they ain't cheap either...

or check out Mad Enterprise http://www.madelectrical.com
both supplies & tips & tech articles are worth checking out

I'd highly suggest buying a "Factory Service Manual" for that specific year

http://www.mymopar.com
is a good resource too, check the tools-reference

good luck & happy Moparing

 

[dcoland70RR]

Thanks for the replies, I owned this dream car of mine since April of 2016. Ended up needing a clutch, some new engine gaskets and TLC so sat on jack stand until few weeks ago due to my busy life with 4 kids including a new son born weeks after buying this sweet ride. So finally took her out for first time ever tonight and such an amazing fun time as I ever imagined. Thanks for the replies with suggestions and diagrams. GO MOPAR. Please mind the dust in photos because it has never been washed yet since I owned but still looks awesome through the dust and dirt. Better photos soon.

 

[NJRR]

Beautiful car!!! I am a little biased though. 70 is my fave year and the RR/GTX/Satellite is the best body style, IMHO. I'm on my 4th. 3 Satellite convertibles and 1-RR.

 

[dcoland70RR]

It sounded like the "fusible link" blown symptoms at 1st

good to hear you found something

70 B-body Belvedere GTX RR diagram
View attachment 498727

the 69 B-body is almost the same
I have a better photos of them
View attachment 498729

View attachment 498730

always when you deal with the "bulkhead connectors"
be very careful taking them apart & they can be very brittle,
clean them well, get into both sides,
try to get corrosion/oxidation or even rust off/out
some electronics cleaner is great too leaves no residues,
IMO use a little bit {not gobs of it} of dielectric grease
on all connections too, it will help to stop the oxidation/corrosion
& help to keep most moisture out too...

M&H Electrical Fabricators Inc. http://www.wiringharness.com/
exclusively available only thru "Year One" unfortunately
makes all of the OE harnesses, & they ain't cheap either...

or check out Mad Enterprise http://www.madelectrical.com
both supplies & tips & tech articles are worth checking out

I'd highly suggest buying a "Factory Service Manual" for that specific year

http://www.mymopar.com
is a good resource too, check the tools-reference

good luck & happy Moparing

 

[dcoland70RR]

Thanks for the suggestions and wire diagrams. Forgot to say after cleaning the wiring block heads it started numerous times with no poblems. Took her out for 20-30 minute first ever ride and stopped at gas station fro fresh gas. Went to start her up and no power at ignition and was like OH ****. Thankfull 2 tries later and she started but clearly an issue somewhere or maybe just need all new wiring like I think. Over all wiring truly looks awesome and untouched under the dash and just a few clearly fix under the hood but overall great, but original. So where are FUSEABLE LINKS AT? I do not know much about wiring but learning so much fast.

 

[dcoland70RR]

Beautiful car!!! I am a little biased though. 70 is my fave year and the RR/GTX/Satellite is the best body style, IMHO. I'm on my 4th. 3 Satellite convertibles and 1-RR.

I could not agree more. I bought my first car at 14, a 1973 brown satellite 2 door 318. built it and raced it. Thats how I fell in love with mopar. 1970 Roadrunner became a dream of mine ever since. I like all mopars but by far the 1970 B Body roadrunners gtx satellites are by far, my opinion, as the best year with the awesome side scoops on quarter panels and rally dash gauges

 

[NJRR]

I could not agree more. I bought my first car at 14, a 1973 brown satellite 2 door 318. built it and raced it. Thats how I fell in love with mopar. 1970 Roadrunner became a dream of mine ever since. I like all mopars but by far the 1970 B Body roadrunners gtx satellites are by far, my opinion, as the best year with the awesome side scoops on quarter panels and rally dash gauges

Funny you mention the awesome side scoops. I just picked up my latest 70 Satty in June. In beautiful shape, but was missing the scoop inserts. I just posted a WTB ( want to buy) post for the scoop inserts and another member has a really nice pair..... in my color !!! Talk about what a great place this forum is. Here's a pic of my current ride.

 

[dcoland70RR]

VERY SWEET RIDE. ENJOY THAT BEAUTY!

 

[WileERobby]

Car is a beauty !

 

[Sixpactogo]

Thanks for the suggestions and wire diagrams. Forgot to say after cleaning the wiring block heads it started numerous times with no poblems. Took her out for 20-30 minute first ever ride and stopped at gas station fro fresh gas. Went to start her up and no power at ignition and was like OH ****. Thankfull 2 tries later and she started but clearly an issue somewhere or maybe just need all new wiring like I think. Over all wiring truly looks awesome and untouched under the dash and just a few clearly fix under the hood but overall great, but original. So where are FUSEABLE LINKS AT? I do not know much about wiring but learning so much fast.

Maybe time to replace the starter relay. It sounds like you have an intermittent loss of power there. Your fusible link comes off of the starter relay and goes to the firewall plug. It is not your problem though

 

[Ranger16]

So where are FUSEABLE LINKS AT?

The fusible link runs from the starter solenoid to the center bulkhead connector. It should have a tag on it that says "Fusible Link".

I had a similar no start problem on an original '69 Road Runner last year. It turned out to be a badly oxidized battery wire (46 years worth) on the starter relay.

 

[NJRR]

The fusible link runs from the starter solenoid to the center bulkhead connector. It should have a tag on it that says "Fusible Link".

I had a similar no start problem on an original '69 Road Runner last year. It turned out to be a badly oxidized battery wire (46 years worth) on the starter relay.

I had an intermittent starting problem on my 70 RR. The negative battery cable was bad. Changed it out, solved the problem.

 

[beanhead]

Great car...what a score! You could also be having an issue with your neutral safety switch, sometimes my car will not start in park, I put it in neutral and then it fires right up

 

[dcoland70RR]

Thanks for suggestions but believe I found the problem. I went out to the garage this morning to pull the RR out and wash it for first time in 14 months, and guess what?? No power at ignition again. So i pulled the bulk 8 head connectors out, the center one is for the engine wiring harness and has the in line fuse link I was told about in this discussion. The plug for the large blue wire which is the fuse link to starter relay is decaying. I took some cleaner and cleaned it out again and it started. I pulled it out of the garage and washed the RR really well. Get back in and no power again. Pulled that connector off again and the main plug connector that is on the firewall and attached to the wiring harness inside the dash is decaying for the outlet for the blue starter relay fuse. Only options appear to be replace the wiring main plug on firewall or drill through it and connect a wire straight through cuz definitely just falling apart old. Stinks cuz I might have to pull apart the dash in order to change that? Ordered some of the wiring harnesses today from YEARONE because only they and ClassicIndustries sell it. Yearone staff told me that ClassicIndustries actually buys the wiring harnesses from YEARONE. YEARONE has a better price and only charges 16 for shipping but ClassicIndustries wants 36 to ship the same thing. YEARONE also accepted a coupon code I found online for my entire 400 dollar order that took 20 percent off (code is - BREEZE). Sucks to have to rewire it but In my opinion better to replace whole unit versus hacking it up further

 

[Ranger16]

I'm confused by your description as "decaying". Could they be oxidized or is the plastic bulkhead connector burnt from overheating? Oxidation is an easy fix. Overheating is the result of another problem.

Oddly enough, mine (not pictured) was in great condition for a 48 year old survivor. I consider myself extremely lucky.

 

[super-bee_ski]

Welcome aboard and thanks for the pics on your Roadrunner!
Great looking car!