Car does not turn off !!! - Had to disconnect the dist.

Yesterday I was driving the car ( 1975 Dart Sport 440 and pulled into the local cruise night and turned the ignition off... but the car still continued to run.

Went to the back of the car to the battery shut off, and turned it off, still it was running.

Lastly, I opened up the hood and pulled the wires from the distributor, and alas it finally died.

What is going on?

We have been having some electrical problems, mainly battery goes dead issues. Like a Possum. One minute its good the next, its dead.

I hadn't started the car for over a week, but the batt. was shut off, started right up. Brought it in the shop to wash it, started right up, drove it out and parked it. Got in 10 min later... dead.

So now Im confused and concerned. I don't race the car anymore, the batt. dis connect was just left in for posterity.

Especially, as the batt. dissconnect DID NOT shut the car down.

It has the batery in the back, MSD 6AL, MSD Dist.
Original ignition.

Any thoughts?

Bryan

Probably melted the main power wire in the steering column or in the bundle of wires entering/exiting the bulkhead connector, fusing incoming and outgoing power, bypassing the ignition switch. Been there done that.

When you repair it you should consider running a direct line from the battery to the alternator so the full electrical load doesn't have to travel into the interior and back again.

Even better is to ditch the ammeter and convert to a voltmeter which will also help reduce the load on the interior side.

Were your headlights on? My 70 Charger has a weird gremlin, the car stays running till you turn the headlights out, ODD to say the least.

MSD's can do that, the one on my Olds did:

http://www.msdignition.com/page.aspx?id=3296

Thanks for the post guys...

Yes my headlights are on when this happens, but they are wired for constant on,so turn the key instant day lights.

You turn the key off and the tach goes to zero, the volt meter goes down, but the car still runs.

So... need to get this fixed. I read the part about the MSD, would that I apply to me? I have the MSD with a one wire alternator.

Bryan

The problem with the car shutting off traced it self back to a wiring issue, a wire had bared itself and was shorting out. As it was tied into another circuit it caused more than a fwe problems.

I used to run a BG 400 fuel pump, and to run it on the street I used a BG 'step down' box. Since going back to a mech. fuel pump, we still left the box wired up the way it was, , years later, it came back on me.

So now the box is completly disconnected and removed, and now... the car starts and turns off with the key!

Thanks again, Bryan