Smoke coming from defrost vent?

[Strawdawg]

rather than drilling thru the connector...which makes it a pain to unplug the connectors...I drilled a hole beside the connector, installed a grommet, and ran a wire thru that....Some where, I think I read the factory did it that way on some fleet cars.

[dodj]

I didn't like the idea of any drilling. My solution was to run a large gauge wire from the alternator o/p to the starter relay-battery. Then I took the black wire that went to the alternator originally and joined it with the large red wire at the fusible link. Then when the ammeter wires are joined, the load through the bulkhead connector is shared between the red and black large gauge wires. Add in the headlight relay mod and the chance of melting down the b/h is virtually non-existant, and I can still unplug my harnesses.

[Strawdawg]

Car I picked up was already fried under the dash and rigged badly...wires melted together, bare wires exposed, etc.  The bulk head connector terminals were burnt.  I did not trust them to last in their condition.  I read about the fleet mod and decided it made good sense.  I put a terminal box under the dash and rewired the appropriate wires to the box.  Ammeter was toast and, not being a purist, I did not mind

[dodj]

 

[tommyg29]

heres a picture from tonight. My car quit again the other day while driving. Must have been a loose wire somewhere.
Anyways got it started only after cleaning up and reconnecting all these harness wires. The steering harness connector was burned so I broke it in half to remove the burned 14g brown "starter" wire in the moddle of the connector, which is only energized when the starter is engaged. I also removed the 12g red wire adjacent to it also, since it supplies all the power I figure it also gets warm. I think it is always hot. At least now I'm reading the same voltage at the connectors as at the battery now. I will reconnect the brown and red wires outside of the connector, and then reconnect the two halves with tie wraps. I dont think those wires run hot.
Last weekend I pulled my bulkhead connectors and cleaned the connections as best I could, and sprayed some electrical grease on them. I think they are all okay.