Dash harness

[challenger_73]

Hey everyone! I need some advice on something. I'm putting my Chally back together and I'm trying to save a little money here but i don't want to burn my car up in the process. I have seen peoples cars burn to the ground after restoring them. My question is...Should I use the original harness that was in my car (36 years old) or buy a new harness? Do most people just reuse their old harnesses if they are in good condition?

 

[dodj]

If it is in good condition, use it. The dash harness wires obviously don't get the kind of abuse the engine compartment and body harness take. Bend some of the wires and check closely to see if the insulation is cracking or is still flexible. I still have my original dash harness but have made replacements for the rest. I'll bet some of those 'cars burning to the ground' was the result of bypassing fuses or fuse links.

[Bullitt-]

Two important issues.....BE SURE that there is an appropriately sized fuse-able link in place that feeds power from the starter relay.    Bypass the ammeter by adding a larger wire from the alternator to the starter relay.

couple of articles

http://www.allpar.com/fix/alternator.html

http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml

[the_engineers]

I have removed my factory gauges (no ammeter).  Can I simply tie the two connections for the ammeter together on the engine compartment side and not pass that current through the bulkhead at all?  How would I power the fuse panel?

[Bullitt-]

Yes, the ammeter connections can go together... leave the existing wiring as is & you will get power to fuse block...BUT to be safe add a new heavier wire from the alternator to the starter relay so all the power does not go through the dash...BE SURE TO ADD FUSEABLE LINK!!. 

[Chryco Psycho]

you need to clean & tighten all of the connections at the bulkhead plugs , use some di-electric grease there as well , , if you have resistance through the connections they will make heat & can start a fire

[dodj]

I have removed my factory gauges (no ammeter).  Can I simply tie the two connections for the ammeter together on the engine compartment side and not pass that current through the bulkhead at all?  How would I power the fuse panel?

Like Bullitt said, you can(should) tie the two ammeter wires together,but not as you're suggesting on the engine compartment side. The red wire that goes through the bulkhead connector provides battery power when power is not supplied by the alternator, for such things as acc power and ignition. Headlight relays will also reduce the load on the bulkhead connector.
When I rewired my ammeter/charge cct, I first tied the red and black ammeter wires together.Then I removed the existing wire from the alternator and tied it together with the red wire at the start solenoid. Then ran new parallel #10awg wires from the alternator to the start solenoid.
This provides a high capacity route for charging current, and the current that needs to go through the bulkhead connector is shared between the red and black #12 awg wires.

[Strawdawg]

I took a slightly different approach on mine...but, then mine had had a fire behind the dash sometime before I had bought it which compounded the problem.

I ran an 8 ga wire from the alternator to the starter relay.  I then ran another 8 ga from the relay, thru a grommet I installed in the firewall and onward to a terminal box I mounted on the end of the hvac box.  That gave me an underdash source of bat power to connect the circuits that orignally came of the alternator post.

Being that there were no longer any fusible links on the car after some prior owner had rigged it, I also made sure that everything was fused just in case.

10 ga would have been enuf, but, I had some flexible 8 ga on hand.  As others have said, the bulkhead connector really needs to be cleaned up as there seems to be a lot of resistance in the connections there.  Using relays for the lights, and ignition, would seem to be a good idea there, as well.

[challenger_73]

Thanks all for you responses. This information was helpful.