Mr C
Senior Member
The Two Sages above have both given you a strong hint regarding GROUNDING, which I heartily re-iterate. I run a bonding jumper ground from the big #4 negative wire from the battery, along the top of the intake manifold, picking up the coil and distributor, and connecting the engine block to the firewall. There SHOULD BE a substantial grounding strap connecting the rear of the intake manifold surface to the firewall. If you lack that, make one of nothing smaller than #10 AWG wire and be SURE to connect to clean, shiny metal on both ends.
If you DO have what should be there, then check it to be sure it still is in solid electrical and mechanical contact at your firewall. My understanding of Formals like a '77 is that the passenger compartment rides with a fair bit of rubber insulation between it and the frame. This makes the bonding jumper all the more important.
Now, going beyond grounding, a horse we've whipped into dog food cans by now.
1.) FUSE BOX! (re-reading your list of malfunctions inclines me STRONGLY toward this likelyhood.) In addition to deceptive appearances of SFE fuses at times, the CONTACTS in those boxes CAN AND WILL CORRODE TO USELESSNESS! Get a good tester and make SURE you have power at BOTH ends of EACH AND EVERY fuse in there. You will need to turn the accessory switch on for some of these, and perhaps the ignition itself for a few key circuits. If any of these fail to show power when they should, then inspect both the fuses and those contacts. I have a treacherous contact which feeds all the dash lights as well as the brake lights. If it vibrates loose, these don't get power, and I must press it firmly back into service. Thus far, its worth the occasional trouble to just press this nuisance tab into place and resume driving, but I'm not put out of countenance easily by lights going out on me, as folks know.
2.) BULKHEAD CONNECTOR!! The OTHER Major Suspect in creeping electrical breakdown in C body and other Mopars of the same period is the electrical bulkhead connector. I suppose that for cars designed to last 5 years, this thing was OK, but ours now are 42-60 yrs old, and will only continue to age. This wiring bulkhead is a MAJOR SOURCE OF MALFUNCTION!! Check your connections here, and clean them up, then grease them after cleaning. Dielectric grease is nice, but others can do in a pinch. You owe it to yourself to look this thing over regardless of what actually ails your wiring, if this isn't part of it...YET!
I punched through a few of the heavy current connections through this thing, pulling #10 wire straight through in one instance, and running another through a rubber grommet in a nearby hole in the firewall. I've read that cop cars were wired just so from the factory. The less connections in a circuit, the less chances of malfunction.
I reckon I've given you a couple good afternoons of "rat hunting" as we called it in my electricians apprenticeship decades ago. See what sorts of vermin you can find, and let us all know!
Happy Hunting!
Item No.2 does not apply to Formals. With the last C body re-design, Chrysler eliminated the bulkhead connector. All the wires just pass through the cowl in a big grommet. One of the best things they did.