my car died on me today.

[74 340 4speed]

Okay guys....here is what happened

I was just taking the 'Cuda out for a normal sunday cruise and I got about a 1/2 mile from my house and come to a stop sign.  Its idling well, and I have to wait about 30 seconds due to traffic.  Right before I was going to pull out, I pushed the clutch in and the car missed a little, and i kept the clutch pedal depressed.  About 5 seconds after that the car died.   I lost EVERYTHING electrical.  I had no reading on the ampere gauge when I turned the key to the on position.  I got out, wiggled the battery cable, thinking it was possible to loose the connection, tried again and nothing.  So I pushed the car off the road into a gas station about 200 feet away and started trouble shooting.  First thing I did was replace the ballast resisistor with a spare I had. Still nothing.  Then I replaced the fuse in the fusabile link in the wire that runs from the ignition switch to the terminal on the starter relay.  Still nothing.  My dad grounded out the starter relay and the engine would crank over, but it didn't have any fire when I had the key in the on position.  After this, we loaded the car up on a trailer and brought it back home.  I haven't done anything else to it.  The next thing I was thinking about checking was the neutral safety switch on the clutch pedal. 

Any other ideas?

The following underhood/incar electrical items I have replaced on the car and none of them have more than 2 years use....car gets driven maybe 3 times a month.

ignition switch
engine wiring harness
battery cables
alternator
battery
starter relay
mopar performance distributor
stock coil
mopar chrome 8K rpm ignition module
mopar ballast resistor
voltage regulator

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Assuming all your replacement parts are ok, look at wiring. 30 years old + wiring can be a real PITA cause it can "look" good. I had a problem were a wire went into a terminal that looked great but inside was as green as grass. Get out the hot light! Good luck!

[DAYLEY/CHALLENGER]

Well not saying this is the same thing but I used to lose all electrical too. Just like there was no battery in the car. It was all caused by not having the connecting plugs and the fuse bulkhead clean enough.  I would get out of the car, wiggle some wires around the connection and thought it was just one wire.  Hasn't done this anymore since I cleaned the terminals. 

[74 340 4speed]

Okay guys, I'll try this out.  I thought I had it clean before I connected the new engine harness to the original bulkhead connector together but I guess it might not be.  I sprayed the bulkhead terminals with electric parts cleaner and put dielectric grease in the connection.  Is there anything else I could clean/help promote the connection?  I'll also check out that hot wire from the switch to the relay as well.  I really think that is where the problem is.

[DAYLEY/CHALLENGER]

Elbow grease......................

[74 340 4speed]

Elbow grease......................

   okay, I think I can handle that one.

[73Chally]

I would periodically lose all electrical when trying to start the car.  It turned out being a short in the negative cable, but I never had it die on me while driving.

[LAA66]

 I had a similar problem that turned out to be the neg wire fitting at the coil. Simply a bad crimp to the copper.

[Bullitt-]

My '73 Charger used to not crank intermittently at which time no accessories worked. Turned out to be the big wide plug at the steering column.

[74 340 4speed]

Okay, I got back home today and checked the plug on the engine wiring harness and the headlight harness.  The engine harness was clean, but the headlight harness was green and nasty looking.  So, I went ahead and cleaned both with electric parts cleaner, and cleaned the bulkhead connector too.  I put a generous amount of dielectric grease on both plugs before I reconnected them to the bulk head.

I got in the car, and turned the key to the on position, and all of my gauges work now.  So I pushed the clutch in, and tried to start it and it wouldn't do anything.  I did see the load increase on the amp gauge when I tried to start it though.

So I turned the key back to the on position, and pushed the clutch in.  I had my dad ground out the starter relay and the car fired right up.  This means that the relay is bad, correct?  Or do I have another issue?  I'm not that good with electrical troubleshooting.  I got a new relay in town a few minutes ago but we are under a severe storm warning so I can't work on the car again until tomorrow.

[Bullitt-]

I'd say probably  bad relay OR bad clutch switch/wiring....

[bb71challenger]

Dont get too crazy with electrical cleaner on stuff like the bulkhead connector. It melts most plastics and sometimes can cause more trouble than it eliminates. Glad you seem to have it worked out. 
Still sucks to break down though, even though it is to be expected with older vehicles I always feel humiliated dealing with a broken down musclecar.

[LAA66]

 As a suggestion, Try bypassing the green clutch switch wire at the relay to a good ground.

  An inline wire to the rad. support terminal in (front of the battery) will work. Cleanup the other wires there while your at it. 

[74 340 4speed]

As a suggestion, Try bypassing the green clutch switch wire at the relay to a good ground.

  An inline wire to the rad. support terminal in (front of the battery) will work. Cleanup the other wires there while your at it. 

I cleaned up the wires at the stater relay, then hooked them up to the new relay and gave it a try.  I get a reading on the amp gauge, but it still doesn't crank over.  I tried running a wire from the ground side of the battery to the terminal on the starter relay where the green clutch wire goes, and it wouldn't do anything.  I then unhooked that, and hooked the green clutch wire to the wire I had on the ground side of the batter and left the clutch wire terminal unhooked on the relay, and tried that....still nothing.  Are either of these methods correct for what you were saying earlier?

[Bullitt-]

Indeed bypassing the clutch switch with a direct battery ground eliminated that element, so the one element left is the ignition power, assuming that shorting the relay still energizes the starter.
On my car that is a yellow wire so you can check that you are getting power when the ignition switch is in the start position, & if not trace it back through the harness and finally to the switch itself.  As a test you could pt a jumper wire from you Positive battery terminal to the relay where the yellow wire connects.