Chrysler Repair: 1991 Chrysler LeBaron - electrical, chrysler lebaron, 1991 chrysler lebaron

Question
My daughter's car does a "weird" electrical thing.  When we start the car, sometimes all is well.  Other times some of the electrical items do not work (power windows, power convertible top, defroster/fan, wipers, etc.)  Also, when this happens we notice that the air bag light stays on.  So the way we tell that these items will work is when we start or restart the car and the air bag light goes off.  But another interesting clue came up the other day.  No matter how many times I restarted it, I could not get it the items to work.  The thing that was interesting was that we were low on fuel...so when the air bag light went off (indicating a supposedly "successful" restart and therefore the items would usually now work)when the low fuel light came on, the air bag light immediately came back on and the items would not work.  I tried this many times and could see that the electrical system was not going to work, but noticed the pattern with the low fuel light, so I wondered if I could get fuel and get the low fuel indicator to not engage, if the items would work.    Luckily was near a gas station, so I cleared the windows and tried to get to the gas station before they were too fogged up to see if getting gas to get this indicator light to shut off would help.  It did.  As soon as we had gas and restarted the car, the items worked.  I want to be clear that the other times the items did not work it was not always that the low fuel indicator was on.  It is just that when the low fuel light comes on there is no hope of getting the items to work.    
I don't know if these items help or are related, but the odometer does not work, (never has since we had the car.)  I believe the speedometer is off by about 8 - 10 mph.  Also, the guy who had the car before my daughter owned it (we do not have access to him to ask questions)  has a CD changer in the trunk, but it does not work, nor does the stereo (not original.)  The stereo light used to come on, but it never had any sound. Being extrememly low on funds, we were hoping we could get at least some idea what the problem with the electrical problem might be so there might be some hope of fixing it.  Thanks!


Answer
Hi Mary,
Thanks for the positive feedback. I also remembered "Click and Clack" on NPR's Car Talk program telling about an ignition switch malfunction that was found to be due to the owner having so many keys and items hanging from the key chain that its weight interefered with the contacts inside the switch working properly. I suspect this is not the case with your daughter's car, but thought I'd mention it. The switch actually is a multiple section switch with four different sets of switch contacts that do different things. You appear to have one section (for all the troubled accessories you mentionned) that is not making good contact in the 'run' position. Thus the idea of spraying some contact cleaner inside the switch.
Roland