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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 341
 
Location: Wisconsin | I had to replace a broken ignition switch on my 1959 DeSoto Fireflite (the internal plastic that mates to the lock cylinder broke) so I purchased an (older) NORS one. I believe I have the wires hooked up correctly (other than I am not 100% certain on the parking brake gray wire, which I have tried on a couple different terminals), but when I go to hook up the battery, it sparks and tries to kick over the starter. Do I have something wired incorrectly or is it possible I have a bad switch? Looking at the manual and all references I have available, it looks like black wires go to the "accessories" terminal, the red goes to "battery", yellow goes to "start" and blue wire(s) go to "ignition". This also seems to follow my written notes from when I disassembled it, but obviously something isn't right here.
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 9654
  
Location: So. Cal | I don't have access to a '59 Dodge service manual to verify the wiring, but you should be able to mostly trace it all out and verify that each wire goes to where you think it does by using an ohm meter connected to each (disconnected) end.
It's hard to tell from the picture, but it almost looks like the yellow start line is touching the red battery terminal. If so, that needs to be remedied. If not, then I would try disconnecting the yellow line and see if you still have issues. If not, then I would surmise that your switch has a problem. Try switching it back & forth to see if you can get it to work. It wouldn't be the first time an NOS switch was bad. Sometimes, the reason why these NOS parts are still available is because they were factory rejects. The new '58 Dodge fuel gauges come to mind, as well as my NOS '58 DeSoto headlight switch. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 341
Location: Wisconsin | Thanks for the input. The yellow wire is elevated above the red one, so it's just the angle of the photo that makes it look like they could be touching. I suppose I could try removing that wire and see if everything else functions like normal. I was also considering hooking up a multi-meter to the switch itself to see if I am getting power to each terminal at the key positions that I think they should be. I would presume that if I contact the "battery" post on the switch, I should then get power to the "ignition" and "accessories" terminals with the key "on" and power to the "start" terminal with the key in the "start" position. |
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Expert
Posts: 4036
Location: Connecticut | David - Instead of trying to make an older NORS switch work, I would recommend pulling the correct switch from a parts car. Part number is 1841167, and the same switch was used on all 1959 Mopars. Ron |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 341
Location: Wisconsin | Ron,
It is a correct switch - it's not a generic one-size-fits-all aftermarket switch, so it's not exactly a case of "trying to make an older NORS switch work". It's an exact physical match in every way to the Mopar OEM switch I pulled out of the car, just manufactured and packaged by Autolite (who very likely supplied the OEM switch to begin with) instead of Mopar. Perhaps by that logic, I should have called it "NOS" instead to avoid any confusion that it was not a correct part for the application? Usually I have no issues with older NOS/NORS electrical parts and would just as soon trust those over an unknown used part of the same age, but as Powerflite pointed out, new parts can be bad right out of the box even from the most reliable suppliers.
I am actually going over tomorrow to my friend's to pull a switch out of his '59 Dodge parts car that is known to be good. I'd still like to confirm my wiring is correct and ultimately know if the NOS/NORS one is good or bad. |
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Expert
Posts: 4036
Location: Connecticut | Yeah, if it's the correct Auto-Lite switch that translates directly over to the 1841167 switch, then all good. I also prefer old Auto-Lite, etc, stock to modern off the shelf stuff. Ron |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 341
Location: Wisconsin | Oh yeah, I 100% agree there, especially with a lot of the newer foreign-sourced ignition parts that don't hold up. New points and ballast resistors seem to be especially prone to being poor quality these days. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 341
Location: Wisconsin | Update: I got the switch from my friend's parts car on Saturday and tested both with a multimeter. The brand new switch was bad, putting power to all the terminals in all key positions. The used switch works and is in the car, which now starts and runs like it should. In case anyone in the future references this post, all the wiring is the same as shown above except I moved the gray wire for the parking brake back to the "accessories" terminal.
The lesson I learned from this is to test all the gauges and switches for my '56 restoration project before I assemble the dashboard and assume they work, even if they are NOS... |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1018
Location: Milwaukee Wisconsin | I too had a bad ignition switch I purchased on ebay a year ago , same results as you did David ..... As soon as I touched the battery cable back up it shot sparks . returned it . JUNK ! |
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Help Needed - 1959 Ignition Switch
