[mattscharger]

I know this isnt a turbo dodge car(as of yet) but My 1973 charger recently burned up four wires in the wiring harness. My old starter wasnt working right so I had to keep jumping(ground it out with a screwdriver) the solenoid to get the car started. I was parked at a restaurant one day and came out to "start" my car and the ignition switch wasnt putting power to anything. Upon further inspection the wire going from the solenoid to the ignition switch had only a thread holding it together and that had broke when I tried starting it. I got my car home(towed) and did some further investigating. I noticed that my main wire going to the starter had been burned to my header so it was shorting out the whole system(or so I thought) I fixed both wires and tied them up all nice and went to turn the ignition switch to on and nothing happened except that a plume of smoke came out of my car and the wire going to the ignition switch had completely burned up. I pulled the wiring harness out and to my suprise there is a junction where 5 wires meet(its a stock section) and only 2 of them are seriously burnt(the other ones are perfectly fine) The wires go to the Ammeter-black(burnt) and the other one that got burned is the wire that goes to the ignition switch(red/pink). theres also another wire that is burned and that goes from the solenoid to the gauges. Its all stock and not hacked whatsoever. the most burned wire by far is the red one going from the solenoid to the gauges. I cannot figure this out. I think my solenoid may have shorted out from jumping it . Idk . thanks for reading this and commenting.

p.s. The car will still start if I put power to the coil and jump the solenoid(having the dash wiring disconnected of course). I am also buying a new ignition switch and solenoid as soon as I get this wiring fixed up. I also put in a brand new high torque starter as well, if that matters. the rest of the harness is cherry, in fact it looks almost brand new.

 

[Katlaw]

I've heard of this on the older Dodge vans. I don't recall exactly, but it seems to me the problem was with the ammeter, that and the regulator.

Hope this helps!

Law

 

[dixiedodge7369]

well you happen to be in luck well kinda... i have a 73 challenger and a 69 superbee.
the bulkhead connectors.. the junction where all the wires connect to go into the car at the firewall is horrible. also the ammeter wires and the gauge it self is very common to go up in smoke like that both my challenger and my super bee both have. All the volts and amps fromt he alt go through the gauge. which cause it to heat up also the gauge(thinkness) of the wire is way to small for stock and even more so if you have ANY elec ad ons. il look in my files theres a way to bypass the the ammeter so your not running all the juice through it but also have it read properly both my cars have it done but i cant remember exactly how i did it. so i would run a overlay for the charging wire from the alt and upgrade to a much larger wire and the bulkhea connectors are hard to find so if the car is not contours quality completly bypass the bulkhead connector and use a grommet and run a new alt wire.

 

[Dr. Johny Dodge]

try to find an article in , mopar muscle - printed in the last 2 1/2 years - there is a kit or shop that converts the old dodge amp gage to a volt gage - this allows a lower power circut that eleminates the risk of fire

not sure if it was just a wireing kit or a reworked gage too

 

[mattscharger]

Damn I didn't know that about the ammeter thanks for the info dixie. I will now be using a MUCH bigger gauge wire for the ammeter. I wonder if theres a way to fuse that wire maybe if it gets to hot it will blow the fuse rather than melt the whole damn harness LOL. I'm gonna be running probably 8 gauge wire for that or maybe some smaller 10 gauge? or do I need a thicker wire than that? let me know what you guys think.I'm gonna take that whole little junction out and replace it with thicker wires to make it more suitable to withstand heat. I can't think of anything else to do as of right now other than replace all the crap and see if it works lol. I'm also replacing the whole dash cluster(not a rallye package) but still I'm doing it just in case because I dont want this to happen again.

 

[mattscharger]

I also think I'm just not gonna hook up the ammeter. I'll hook up an aftermarket voltmeter.