O.K. well first off I just bought my 74 Dart Swinger around 7-8 months ago. I have only driven it for about 1 1/2 months for the simple fact that there are a couple things wrong with it. The first being that the gas gauge always read "EMPTY" most likely because the floater or whatever has rotted and fallen to the bottom of the tank and I tried guesstamating the distance I can travel but I ran out of gas on the freeway and it sucked! So that's one reason why I stopped driving it but not the main reason. The second problem is that every time I would make a sharp right, the lights on the dashboard would go out and then randomnly come back on from time to time even when cruising. The parking lights then went out right after the "right turn" short was happening. Then, the car would like to shut off during the right turns so I would have to smash the accelerator a bit to keep it going. Well, one day I was running it against some Civic and my car just shut off. I could not start it for the simple fact that when I would put the key in the ignition and turn it, it would not start, make any noise, and none of the lights would then come on. No headlights, no interior lights, and no lights except the brake lights. So then I called Triple A to have the car towed. Well, the tow truck driver asked if I had tried banging the starter with a hammer to see if it was that and I had but nothing. Then, he tried manually starting it by leaving the key to "ON" and touching the two screws on the starter solenoid and "Wallah" he showed me how to do it if it were to happen again and it was cool. Then on my way home, the car died another time. This had now pissed me off and my friend and I had tried exactly what the tow truck driver had recommended but it was not starting. It would crank and crank and want to kick over but IT SIMPLY WASN'T STARTING. The car has now been in my driveway for the last 6 months or so because I had it towed and layed to rest. I would like to get her back up n running seeing that exterior and interior she is fully restored and the engine had 80,000 original miles but everything runs cherry except that DAMN SHORT and I have no idea what it could be. I tried the solenoid, changed the wires on the battery, replaced the starter, replaced the ground, replaced the battery with a new one and still nothing. No headlight, interior lights, no turn signals, NOTHING....can anyone tell me what might be the problem because 3 mechanics have looked at it and both said that they had never seen any electrical short like mine but that's why I'm eluding to my fellow mopar junkies to give me some feedback and hopefully we can solve this problem because I gave her a wash last week and started noticing little spots of rust and paint withering near the corners and behind the emblems so this means BAD NEWS so I need to get this car up and running again. PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME I have no idea what to do!

 

Sounds to me from your description, there is a short in the column harness. Get yourself a new harness with the ignition switch, plug it in before installing it, and se if the problem goes away.

 

Ignition switch in the '74 Dart is not easy to change. I had a very similar problem. I was told by MANY people that there would be a rod inside the steering column that went down to the bottom of the column and when you turned the key, the rod pushed a switch down at the bottom of the column. In my car, the ignition switch is a cylinderjust to the left ofthe lock cylinder and I couldn't get to it, so I used my Haynes manual to rewire the ignition so that I had a switch under the dash that turned the ignition on andI got a starter button and wired it directly to the battery and starter and mounted it in the dash. Both switches were wired DIRECTLY to their components so that no harness or other wiring could interfere. I've had no problems with this and the key still needs to be in the lock cylinder in order to be able to turn the steering wheel. I had the same problem and I recommend that.

 

That's in GM cars.
The Mopar ignition switch has a harness built into it, it's not hard to change, just time consuming. That's why I recommended getting another one and just plugging it in first to see it that cures the problem, if it does, change it, if not, look further.

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I had a problem wit my 74 dart very much like yours, it would die out on me when i ran over rail road tracks quickly or taking sharp turns. I would be able to crank sometimes but wouldt start and also the gauges and lights didnt work except the oil light, so i changed the ignition switch and it pretty much cured my problem, during myrepairi found out that a tab had broken off the clip for the switch harness keeping it from making good contact and that was what was causing some of the problems.

 

Pull the electrical plugs off of the firewall in the engine compartment one at a time and check the condition of the brass blades of the connectors. Also check the female ends in the firewall. I had a similar problem with my 71 Swinger years ago and one of the connectors had corroded and was causing all kinds of trouble.

 

I think I have the same problem with the Dart I just bought. Where can I buy the column harness?

 

I agree definately the ignition switch.
Listen to mr340