Re: Dodge Dart electrical problems/starting problems

Finally an answer! 16 years later.

Except it's not the right answer... the ballast resistor will keep the ignition from firing but it sounds like the original poster had a starter that wasn't turning. It being a Dodge of That Era, likely the starter commutator or brushes are bad although a bad ignition switch is very common too. No doubt the car is long gone, though.

--scott

Just replace the starter. My boss used to have a car like that. It was the hot rod version and had a "340" bumble bee stripe on the rear, big tires, and a jacked up appearance. I'd go on errands and sometimes have to wait for the starter to cool down before it would start. If you applied the brakes too hard, it would start to squealing and sliding. That was embarrassing.

He also had a hot rod Pinto. That was okay with me. I liked driving his tiny Ford Fiesta the most.

Do you really think he's still got that car sitting there waiting for a starter after 17 years have gone by?

You know that's not the case, I know that's not the case, even God knows that's not the case. Why even ask that silly question? What I really think is that it doesn't matter how much time has passed. Good advice is always good advice. Bad advice and silly notions will always be useless.

Usenet, the world's biggest and longest-lasting source of useful free information on a variety of subjects. Or at least it used to be.

When I discovered it in 1994 I was amazed that you could ask a question and get a GOOD answer from someone on the other side of the world within MINUTES sometimes.

It used to be when a more valuable, purer, resource back in the old days when the posters were mostly from educational institutions, government agencies, and science labs. There used to be more decorum and civility, less gossip and name calling. That's the breaks.

But there was the Green Card Lottery...

The tech groups seem to be alive and well, although sadly diminished. Hobby groups are nearly invisible. My motorcycle and skiing 'friends' (some of whom I've 'known' since 1995) have moved to facebook, so I did too, but it's no substitute. You just don't meet new people unless they're friends of friends. And you never get ALL the posts; you get different ones depending on which browser and/or device you're using. I wish I knew why Zuckerberg thinks that's a good idea.

But using Thunderbird is SOOOOO much better than the website. There were real advantages to using tin as a newsreader, though...

And I really wish I knew what happened to Scott en Aztlan and his yellow Corvette.

And death has taken her toll of usenet as well. Young people don't know about it at all.

And rn before that, as I recall! :)

I had a 1970 Dodge Dart in 1980 just after I left grad school but I don't remember anything about the electrical system so I can't help the OP.

At about 100K, the front shook so much at speed that I replaced the pitman arm, idler arm, ball joints, and tie rod ends.

I didn't know about alignment in those days, so I just marked the mating parts and bolts (which I had to do anyway since I did the toe myself, with a helper).

Took it to Sears.

Learned a lesson that mechanics are crooks.

Sears charged me but I never saw the guy do anything to the car, but I didn't know then to watch every second of what they do.

Back home, not a single marked bolt was moved.

Took it back, and they found nothing was even close except the toe (which I had done).

The mechanic's charts only went back 10 years so he simply didn't do anything.

That's not even my first experience with mechanics who are crooks (don't even ask me about AAMCO on that same Dodge Dart).

Basically, what I learned was mechanics are crooks.

That's why I do all my own work today.

I feel sorry I can't help the OP though.

Being able to read posts and do a search on the same page is a wonderful ability. Google Groups' retention policy of forever is a wonderful thing. I used to use Thunderbird and it was okay. I don't anymore because it requires that I use a NNTP provider to access the posts. That also means that you have to have the Tbird desktop client loaded in your machine. I don't need any of that and I can access posts on any internet connected device. A web interface means that I can access any documents that I'm working on in any machine - even cell phones it's all good.

In addition...

Just in case folks are unaware of the links for the dejanew's Google Groups "permanent" searchable web archives of this newsgroup, here is an easily remembered link: o

See also: o

If you know of other "permanent" free web-searchable public archives for this Usenet newsgroup, please let us all know so that we all benefit from what you know.

But using Thunderbird is SOOOOO much better than the

He must have been using x-no-archive; I can't find any of his posts. That's just wrong. Usenet is our history.

Not just young people. I used to ask the strangers I rode on the ski lifts with about it. Never found anyone who knew. Charter (our ISP) used to provide a usenet (maybe still does, I haven't checked for a long time) feed. Once it was down for over a day so I called Charter customer service. Elevated twice. NOBODY knew what usenet was. The top level (he claimed there was no higher) guy thought it was that satellite thing and they didn't support that.

Ultimately I uncovered the fact that usenet was provided by Highwinds, so I emailed them. They said I had to contact my ISP. I explained. No response. Eventually the problem cleared up.

Eternal September is SOOOO much better.

The Google Groups indices are pretty much broken. There are a lot of messages that are in their database which cannot be found by subject or author searches. It has been like this for many years and nobody at Google cares.

--scott

Google Groups will honor the x-no-archive flag. My guess is that the posts are still around in their non-public archives forever. You can still find people's x-no-archive posts if they were quoted in a responses to them.

My guess is that Google will also delete all posts from posters that have violated their policies or have used x-no-archive way too much. Again, you can probably find their posts from other posts that have quoted them.

Eternal September and other NNTP service providers work just spiffy these days. At one time, they were just awful. It's probably because most of these services are now using cloud servers instead of a basement of rickety, old, machines.