Hi All,

New to this forum, I have a 72 charger with 440 magnum engine. My son and I have been working on this car for about 2 1/2 years now. My issue is when the head light switch is pulled on the running lights and tail lights don't come on. Head lights work, tail lights work when brake is pressed, turn signals and hazards work front and back.

Read yesterday that the wires going through the steering column have something to do with the tail lights. I pulled the steering column apart and checked the wiring under the steering wheel. The pink wire had 12 volts of power all the time, all other wires didn't have power.

I changed the light switch, checked and replaces light bulbs in tail lights. Found issues with ground wires and correct them back at the tail lights. I changed out the steering column from column shifter to floor shifter and the entire interior last winter. This is when the problem showed up. I am not very knowledgeable in electrical wiring, know enough to be dangerous. I feel it may be a grounding issue but don't know and don't know what needs to be ground inside the steering column and under the dash.

Thanks for any help.
Dale

 

I am going to guess that you have an interruption of the power wire from the fuse block to the headlight switch for that circuit .... I had run into that before. Sounds like you have covered the rest pretty good.
Welcome to the site.

 

thanks. I look for that if I can tonight. Do I just need to find the power wire from the light switch correct?

 

Look at the fuse block and test it with a test light. Sometimes you loose power going from the fuse panel back to the switch... Parking power is not on the same wire as the Headlamps. (In Most Cases) Fused by itself.

 

need a little more help. I did what you said and with all the wires pulled out from under the dash I got the side marker lights and rear lamps to work w/ the light switch pulled. So I put everything back up under the dash nice and neatly and now it doesn't work again. Pulled all the wire back down and still can't get it to work. Struggling.

I bought another headlight switch, replace a relay under the dash in the middle not near the fuse block. Check everything I could think of, is there a fuse inline somewhere? What is the big relay attached to the fuse block? Not sure what to do at this point. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks
Dale

 

Going to have to trace the wires and find the break or bad connection..... Sounds like your talking about the turn signal flasher or the hazards flasher?

 

thanks. I haven't had any luck so far.

 

Thanks Mr. Hogan. This is a pain to figure out. This weekend I pulled the bumper off to check all the connections. I found a ground issue back when I first started trying to figure this out.

Long story short I was playing w/ the wires and switching them around to other wires going to the lights, I found out I still can't get the side marker lights to come on when the light switch is pulled, but all the marker lights will come on depending on what wires are touched together along w/ the ground wires. Sometimes it lights up dull and other time it is very bright. (Not sure if this makes sense) but I know the marker lights work for sure now.

I just got a new steering 8 wiring (turn signal wires) in today and plan on putting that in this week. I'm also going to pull my back seat out and trace the wires going into the trunk to make sure they are OK. I think I may have to rewire the back area because all those wires seem really hard and brittle. Thanks for your help, I'm not really great at wiring diagnoses but I'm trying to figure it out.

Dale

 

Sounds like a plan.... Also, Pull the door sill plates and check the wires... Sometimes water plays a big part in that area....

 

thank you for your help

 

I hope I found the problem. I got it working, but I will now need to re wire the rear lights. Thanks for your help.

 

Does anyone know what the timing should be on a 72 charger with 440? Starting and advanced please

 

I'd start with 10 degrees initial look for thirty-five total.

 

Yep... I agree.... With the old guy...

 

Thanks, at what rpm should the 35 be

 

Thanks, at what rpm should the 35 be at?

 

All in @ 2500 rpm but it probably won't be if stock distributor. Stock iron heads make the most power with 38° + or - 1° if you don't get detonation.

 

I'm using a MSD distributor, not sure about the heads. I know it has an edelbrock torker manifold.

 

Thank you very much for the info

 

Thank you, thank you. Running much better. I am still having backfiring through the carburetor when I hit the throttle. Not all the time and not violent. My question is the car was backfiring violently before I changed some parts, could the backfiring be the power valves?

 

No on the power Valve...... Check the Accelerator Pump. You mite not be getting enough pump shot.

 

Can a carburetor cause miss firing? As you see on the 8th car was close. A week and half letter now it is miss firing again and I'm back to the original problem of no back lights. Don't know when this came back. Could my carb be letting to much gas through causing miss firing

 

Let me add more. Before the 8th post I changed plugs, wires found ground issue and adjusted timing. I thought i had it. Now I isn't running right again. I did find a crack in the manifold by one of the corner screws.

TIA

 

I would check the wire connections at the firewall, I'm not sure if there a split in the mane harness or not but I would be looking at grounds, all connections, broken wires etc..

 

That's what I was afraid of.

 

well, I finally found the issue after replacing everything I knew how to and found out that the ignition switch was bad. Car is back running and drive now. I still think I have some ground issues going on, but nothing major. Thanks everyone for your replies.

 

Glad you got most of the issues handles,,,