What's Wrong With This 1973 Dodge Challenger? Electrical Gremlins, Big Block Tuning Tech, And More 

I enjoyed this almost as much as Lord of the Rings. And to be fair, Rings had a bigger budget. Tks.

Man I just found this channel about 12 hours ago …. Not much has been done in the last 12 hours 😂 glued to my screen 😂 ahhh well totally worth being in the dog house all night Regards from uk 🇬🇧

I'm retired now but I started out as a bodyman, enjoyed everything about it, moved to wrenching, later to a machine shop rebuilding cyl. heads, enjoyed it all EXCEPT electrical problems, they always end up with you under the dash with the rocker panel in the small of your back and your head and neck in an unhealthy position.

Carburetor: Shoots flames Jamie: Lays his hand on it and blips the gas 💀

NGK the only plug I will install in my engines

Same NGKs im running in my 440! Love them! Secondly, I was specifically told to avoid LEDs in both front turn/park lights and tail lights because they don’t draw enough and cause flasher issues. Have to install 2 electronic LED flashers for proper signal functions. Had my friend not told me this I would have been on the same goose chase! Mopar on! 🤘🏻

Another great video. It's fun watching you untangle all of the conditions that cause one problem.

thanks for the inspiration in getting my '74 Challenger running again

Great video Jamie. Your content is always relevant to the stuff I'm working on to keep my 70 Challenger running. I'm learning a lot from you. Thank you!

A joy to watch. This may be a rewatch again soon.

I retract the blown cylinder head gasket diagnosis on this car... not consistent enough... but certainly possible. Fouled plugs.. no. That makes no sense although that was some rich. Richy Rich rich... yikes. That stupid pickup and electrical gremlins... nailed it. Keep it up

I fixed my belt squeaks finally by taking them off and run a heavy folded piece emery cloth in the crank pulley grooves while idling the engine. You will also notice how whisper quiet these engine are without the fan noise...

Recently discovered your channel. Very much enjoyed your videos I have seen so far. I look forward to watching many more. Cheers from Australia.

When I first started driving (1975) My first car was my moms 71 Demon (225 flavor) after that I owned a 68, 318 Cuda and my pride and joy 1970 Charger RT. Since then I have pretty much been a Bowtie guy. Since following Uncle Tony which led me to you (better IMO) I have nostalgically looked back at those days with joy. Love how you splain things. Thanks for having one of the best Mopar channel's on the tube. Signed, A Chevy guy...😆

Thanks for taking the time to put these videos together. You definitely have a lot of knowledge about carburetor and timing-tune up stuff. That I never even thought of. Many years ago my brother bought a brand new Edelbrock 4 barrel carburetor for the Dodge W 200 Power Wagon I have, And for many years the truck would fall on its face when you stood on the gas, So about 15 years ago I checked out the throttle linkage to the carburetor and noticed the secondary's were opening at about a quarter of the throttle, and it came from the factory that way. Once I re-bent the linkage, the truck would get-up-and-go. That's the same engine I rebuilt around 1982. Still runs great.

hour+ video count me in. big block stuff is fun. Remind me again to buy a big block

Aaaaaand that is why I always hated wiring. Great video Jamie.

Mechanical flashers need the current draw of the incandescent bulb to heat the thermostatic switch inside them and cause the contact to break. Once broken, the circuit immediately begins to cool- closing the circuit and illuminating the bulbs until the heat causes the circuit to break again. AN LED BULB WILL NEVER DRAW THE REQUISITE CURRENT and so the mechanical flasher will never work.

look where my hand was. Great video of a wiring nightmare. Thanks

Belt squeal is the best indicator of engine performance 😁. Some things are just obvious. 😂 Great job Jamie. Your customer is lucky to have you working on his car.

What a really beautiful car, you sure made a difference in the way it runs!

as a owner of a 72 challenger 440 a727 ralley (originally a 340 with a 3speed manual) myself, I WANT MORE OF THIS ;)

I was very intrigued with this car when you showed us the video when you happened to find it in primer with slotted mag wheels and told us it was your old car. The pictures you showed of it painted yellow I thought were really cool. I was curious what ever happened to it. Awesome video again as usual.

Yeah good E-body electrical content...thanks...🔧🔧👍

Jamie you rock man, you have become the Mopar whisperer!!

AWESOME!!! Great video as always!!!

Thanks for all the electrical teachings , never gets old and helps lots

What a transformation! That exhaust note toward the end when it was tuned was excellent! Sure wish I was patient enough to be good at wiring… that’s a skill I am definitely jealous of.

Passing along for WIW. The rocker arms are stamped, as we all know. Sometimes the tip of the rocker at the pushrod end will slightly split allowing the valve to not have the proper lift because of the additional clearance. (Like a bad cam lobe) I bought a 73, 340 with a horrible backfire. The pushrod had actually worked all the way through the rocker end stopping the valve from opening. Worth a check to make sure the rocker shaft is torqued correctly and all valves are operating at the same lift amount.

I'm great full for your wealth of electrical knowledge and experience! My 70 barracuda electrical is all original and still working good, now I know what to protect it and make it better.

I had an orange 72" Challenger back in the 90's. It was an original 340 automatic but had a 440 4-speed when I bought it....🎶 meeemories, misty water colored meeemories...🎶

Great job Jamie. Really appreciate the wiring/electrical. She’s a Beauty. Thank you!

That black beauty is officially 'High Maintenance'

Sounded good when the phone fell over. Front end rebuild is needed for sure. The Black looks great. The Demon is cool too.Thanks for the video.

Absolutely another killer vid Jamie. I’m so glued to your videos that I’m not getting enough done in my own life.😳 😂.

Another awesome episode brother!

LEDs are a great idea. Vastly, vastly better than old fashioned bulbs. I have a full LED conversion inside and out on my '93 D250 and I love it. Very worthwhile upgrade and I have zero regrets about. As long as you get LED flashers or load resistors for the signal bulbs, you're fine. Or you can get the fancy bulbs with the built in circuitry to make them play nice with the normal flasher. No need for headlight relays with LEDs since they draw no current to speak of. Get Auxitos. They are good quality bulbs. I've had mine in the truck for 14 months now, and zero issues. I drive exclusively at night, so they get used all the time.

Theres a meme out there that shows a fluke meter and on the screen it says “good luck” so true with electrics

Good job Jaime. Beware the mission creep.

My first car was a 73 Cuda back in 79, loved the heck outta that car. Traded it on my 66 Charger in 85, still have the fastback, wish I could have both

By the time you finish with this car it will be better than brand new electrics can be a massive pain in the butt when multiple things are going wrong you did very well good job

Cool car! Even cooler story! Its always great to hear a cars story and know it's history!👍

It must have been weird working on this after so many years. Pretty awesome car, even if it does need some work. The sure grip will make this even more fun. The rally hood does rule!

Just used my power probe today actually. One of my favorite tools by far. So darn handy. Everyone should own one

Stopped this at 7:11 to throw my hat in the ring. My guess for the engine problem is timing/distributor. My experience is more with GMs, but anytime an engine was backfiring through the carb it was usually the timing or the distributor post itself.

I've had great results with LED bulbs on my classic Mopars, just make sure to either wire in a resistor or keep at least one bulb in the circuit a conventional incandescent type.

I have gradually learned auto electric fighting my own gremlins. I have learned to absolutely loathe fusible links. I don’t know if it’s “correct” but I eliminated all of them on my 93’ W250 12v using blue sea marine fuse blocks with maxi and midi fuses. There is a chart that shows what size link equates to what size fuse. Many of that truck’s issues went away with them. OnlyI time will tell if I resort to it on the Valiant or A100. I’m not suggesting you or anyone else do it, especially on a classic that’s not yours. Just throwing ideas out there. My truck hasn’t burnt to the ground… yet.

I thought there was too much timing into it. Try this. Inside the vacuum advance the is an adjustment. Remove the vacuum hose and take a 1/8" hex or alan wrench into the vacuum advance. Back out the alan or hex screw a half a turn and check your total advance numbers again. Adjust again as needed. Backing it out reduces total timing. The factory ignition is a good one. Oh and check the coil resistance numbers. If they're off replace. Note the most expensive coil at the store will likely be good number. Don't ask how I know. Good luck

Nice work fighting that challenger beautiful car great video

I had 2 different original ammeters go bad on old dodge trucks. Both did the same thing, where the posts go into that copper or brass plate or whatever it is that solder or whatever originally holds the post in failed and was loose in there and started arcing out. One would just straight kill all power, the other still allowed the truck to run fine but almost started on fire on me. It got so hot it actually melted the plastic housing that holds the gauges to where the new gauge I installed didn’t even sit in the right place anymore and I had to do some fancy shimming so it didn’t look all derpy.

New video. Nice!! Keep em coming brother 😎

Pretty fun video. I dig the 73 Challenger.

Can’t wait to put you in your happy place next month!!! I’m hoping for same outcome on the gauges!!

Three things, 1. I remembered the screw grounding the front socket before you mentioned it because of your past video. 2. LED bulbs screw up everything from cars to pinball machines if they didn’t originally come with them. 3. Everyone preaches timing before messing with the carb. Why did you go carb first? I get that you knew there were carb issues. Is the timing first approach more for amateurs? As far as pinging, someone once said it sounds like rocks in a coffee can. I agree with that, but do they still have coffee cans to know what that would sound like?

The guy that owns that car did good to follow the rainbow back to you. No way I could even remember all those chase downs.

if the leds have an 1156 stryle pin setup as you mentioned they will not light up if in backwards. led's only work one way unlike regular bulbs that will work if the pos and neg are reversed. i had this problem in my mustang

Nothings perfect Jaime but you got the engine to a good place. Good work on the voltage problem.

Crazy small world isn't it amazing how it runs full circle. ❤😮😮

Thank you Jamie

I just recently bought a power probe. I'm loving the long leads.

@Jamie, Power Valves can blow out if backfires thru the carb happen more than about 2-3 times. Just looking at the air horn the carb is too rich or its choke soot. I noticed your new plugs are extended tips and that should help, if it idles more often those will help and a heat range higher will too. I prefer the tube type squirters and 31/35's

I highly recommend 100 octane low lead airplane gas. My valves started sticking and popping on pump gas. That airplane gas fixed real good.

The fusible link has a special insulation that stays in place when the wire inside melts. This helps to prevent it from shorting to other wires. Ordinary wire is not the best thing to use for a fusible link.

May be sacrilege to speak of GM here but I have my own rabbit hole that's similar to this possession your exercising. My '72 Buick Skylark likes to backfire as I accelerate thru to second gear... was running rich, adjusted carburetor... still back fire... chased various vacuum leaks (bent rigid fuel line in the process, don't ask)... still backfired... sea foam to remove excess carbon build up... still back-fired... replaced clogged PCV valve... still back-fired... new plugs, plug wires, coil... every step of the way it's improved drive-ability but it still doesn't like accelerating thru to second gear without a back-fire... I'm on to timing and possible distributor replacement. I'm here to tell you your videos have kept me on the path because I know I'm not the only one dealing with gremlins, and to say thank you.

A mechanic that has a sweet spot for electrical problems is rare.

The original yellow with black stripes was cool and putting the 4 gauge wood grain Rallye gauge would be great put back in.

Very cool machine

Ported vacuum advance has always been better than manifold in my experience. I know you've tried many distributors but checking rotor phasing can't hurt.

When I did the LED conversion I had the same problem. I had to install an LED flasher that had an external black ground wire. I then found the flashers did not work when the headlights were on. Replaced the rear bulbs with OE style bulbs to resolve that. Ugh.

Ha ha, Siren Head singing the Westminster Chimes was not on my bingo card this Sunday morning, but here we are.

An hour of black Challenger content? He'll yeah

My 71 Camaro has an (disconnected) ammeter too. I think GM switched it to a voltmeter in 74 or 75. I’m not sure what that guy was talking about.

I'm not partial to any brand of park plugs but I hardly ever buy any. I just beadblast the old ones, blow the beads out good, and put them back in. I've been lucky and almost never have had bad/burnt/damaged plugs.

Weld Draglites look good on everything.

Tail light panel needs to be argent, looks like ass painted body color. Great job troubleshooting and cobbling the fixes. Just the way I would have done it. You’re absolutely right about constantly things to fix with classic cars, seems never ending sometimes. Just cobble it and enjoy. 🤣

Lol... he said "grab the body of the squirter"... get it... get it... 😅😅😂😅 Nevermind.

Very informative as usual. I don’t ever use connectors with plastic insulation any more. I buy plain and heatshrink. Did you know they make a butt connector with 2 different sizes on each end like a 12-14? Maybe I saw it on your channel?

Beautiful car, yellow or black. That was the issue I was having with my fusible link.

On the vacuum advance pod. I make shims to limit the travel of the mechanism. There, by limiting the advance available. I just glue them in with silicone .016 = 2 degrees.

This makes me miss my 71 challenger I built a newer 318 engine for it and put a big camshaft in it it made for a loping engine that sounded great and it would wave bye bye if the hood was up I took it drag racing at a full quarter mile strip and it ran a 12.3 second pass on street tires with just a little spin on the line not bad for a little 318 engine and new tread on it I had done the offset shackle and a B body rear housing to get the widest tires possible under the back and everything I could do to make it launch off the line with no wheels spin automatic 727 one day a guy offered me to much money and it needed a lot more work at the time still miss it I would start it up just to hear it idol but with the amount of transmission fluid under it was concerning and I was starting a new business at that time and the stack of hundreds was just to much temptation for me I had reworked everything under the dash after the smoke genies came out one day the alternator gauge was the center of that mess new wires all thicker than factory was my solution

I watched the driving part of the neato Mitsu-challenger, it was fun

i use a magnet to pull the squirter out usually put a rag in the carb too just in case it falls in

I just love Challengers

Despite all her present issues shes a Beauty...!!! Luvit!!

Man that steering is crazy ! I hate fighting the wheel in car to keep it on the road !

Something I found out the hard way with LED wafer style marker light bulbs is that there is a + pos side identified by a tiny little red dot that is next to fucking impossible to see lol. These led bulbs can be easily installed backwards reversing the polarity causing a lot of aggravation. Beware its not marked on the package and can go either way. Hope this helps someone out.

So , normal 50 year old car things . Great job

Jamie, were you laboring on Labor Day? WT hey? Another great video. Just go easy on us E body lovers. 😅

Don't get those gremlins wet 😂 they multiply

That sounds like a timing issue brother. The factory chains are trash and the timing marks can walk on the harmonic balancer. Had a similar issue on a 66 440 New Yorker

The white car in the beginning, is that a Chrysler Cordova or a Dodge Magnum??? I like that body style.

I actually love this car

what the exhaust on this thing sounds awesome!

I’ve seen on one of my other favorite channels , explaining trans slots on the carb need to be square. My question to you, could you explain your opinion. I understand your explanations better. And does it affect vapor lock? Thank you for any insight.

Seeing those '73 , '74 taillights again, reminds me of how good they look , IMO much better looking than the earlier ones , I do think the 1970 grille is the nicest, but that '73 sad mouth, when it is blacked out is a big improvement , and looks quite ok. I've thought I'd like to use LED bulbs in both of my Valiants taillights, just for more brightness, would I encounter a problem with that?

NOT AN E BODY GUY?! I didn't know those existed! They're the GREATEST cars EVER!!! I may have to rethink my subscription to your channel.....ok, rethought it....I'll forgive you.😊 In the sincere hope that you come to your senses some day.....and 2nd. Gen Chargers are the second greatest cars. So you're not too far off.

No love for the 'frowny face' Challenger? Nay! Nay, I say! I love ALL Challengers from this period and I'm a bit weird in that I like the ones with the frowny face. If I ever get to own one, I hope it's a black one like that one. The weird thing? I would want to paint the grille black like that too......but then it would be silver on the edge of the bevels around the headlights....and I'd also paint the face of the frowny-hump bit in the centre silver. That way the car looks like it's got a real bad attitude when it comes up behind someone and they will get out of its way quicker. Well, that would be the theory anyway. I could hear the engine not improving with each mod you did to the setup...and man, what a totally different sound at the end, eh? Crisp and instantly responsive to the loud pedal. One thing I have learnt over the years is don't sweat bricks about being three days into a one day project of things. There will always be other things that join the list and some of the things you wanted to fit will suddenly require you to pull even more things apart to either get to or fix the one you initially were aiming at...and some of these things will also need fixing, lubricating or replacing (or a combination of all of the above). Case in point - my Triumph Stag! Life with a 50-year-old car cannot be understood until it is experienced....and it takes experience to understand that a 50-year-old car has moods. Some days she will fight you and some days she will reward you for making her feel better. People have been made lazy by many years of reliability and faithful service from their modern vehicles and their minds lull them into thinking this is a good thing and they forget their past experiences. Reliability is so tedious though, isn't it? To be fair, I like LED bulbs in a classic - they are great for lighting up the old instrumentation so you can read everything clearly at night at a glance instead of peering at them for a few seconds to figure our where the needle is. I like them in brake and reversing lights too because then people see them easier. Indicator circuits though? No. Too much to faff around with when something isn't working as it should. I am also a bit weird in that I prefer the sound of the old analogue relay's tick - especially in British cars because it isn't off-on-off-on-off-on so much as off-on---off-on---off-on.......ie: it's not a symmetrical pattern as there is a shorter delay when its off and its on for longer. I don't like them in classic headlights either because they look wrong in the car. Running a relay with direct battery power to the headlights also improves the old halogen or sealed beam lights twofold, so it's not really necessary to change them to LED and this method is way cheaper to implement too and also takes a load off the 50-year-old Lucas wiring harness (which is ALWAYS a good thing!). All the best

We call them a sad mouth challenger in Australia, but nice car Jamie

Reff the occaisional back fire. Look up and persue "Inductive cross fire". It IS a thing. The plug wires on the left bank running paralell for too long will cause two or more plugs to fire at the same time. Stock, it's usually not an issue...but if coil output has been increased...

I do like LED lighting. But aftermarket makes them very unlikable. Too many issues usually related to either quality, or the vehicle's rejection of them, they are finicky and if the electrical values aren't supportive they wont flash or something dum. To me, if you have to add a Resistor then that defeats half the reason to using a Energy efficient LED, because the resistor just makes it duplicate the resistance of the tungsten filament bulb and use the same power. The pro, bighter lamp. So the only thing ive found worthy are usually sometimes Headlamp LED. Again if you can see past some of their quality issues. Fit and finish. Ive had good luck with some.