Wiring Question

[dobie]

Last year my bird started to have a wiring malfunction. After I shut the car off, there was no power anywhere. No lights, no starter, no nothing. I later discovered that jiggling the bulk head connectors resulted in fixing this. That was last fall before I parked it over the winter. This spring it's been ok, till last weekend.

I went out and fired her up, but I have to keep my foot on the pedal for the first few minutes to keep her running. During this "warm up" time, I noticed that my ALT gauge needle went from the "C" down to the center where it rests when shut off. Thinking she was warmed up enough I jumped out of the car to grab my phone. She ended up stalling out, which now resulted in the no power anywhere. I popped the hood off, jiggled the wiring, and got power. I left the house but halfway to the coffee shop the Alt gauge went to the middle again. Eventually it sprung back to "C" on the way home. I never shut it off cause I know it wouldn't fire.

So, on Sunday, I popped off the bottom 2 bulkhead connectors and lubed everything up with dielectric grease. The only loose connection I found was the wire going from the starter relay to the bulkhead. I tested things by unhooking this wire at the relay, but of course I still had power.

So, I guess my question is, does anyone know what wire would cause this? By no power, I mean no power anywhere. Ya know when you turn the key to the run position and the brake warning light comes on, I get nothing. No lights, no nothing. It's gotta be a main wire, but I just don't know which one it is.

 

[69hemibeep]

Usually its the bulk head coming loose and you may have fixed it. Are all the clips intact and the harness is loose and not pulling on it?

 

[dobie]

Yeah, the bulk head itself looks to be ok. I really gotta struggle with getting them popped off. For some reason I thought I remembered some one saying last year that the wire going into the bulkhead to the ignition switch would cause this. I just don't know what wire that is. I asked my uncle the other day and he said it's the main one..., the big one, ..... Not a lot of help as I can't tell any differences.

 

[BBillyC]

I had the exact same problem with the wire with the fuse link on it...methinks the same wire you are talking about. Found out the wire was corroded inside and had been unraveling. I replaced the wire and no more problems. Also check for a loose ground wire from the batter or motor to firewall.

 

[dobie]

Grounds are good. I'll have to look at the fusible link.

Thank you!

 

[Basketcase]

IIRC, the "main" wire your Uncle means is a little thiker than the rest. My Uncle's 300 I was working on did the same thing, and that's what it was. Cleaned the wires up, tightened the female ends up a tad and that took care of it.

 

[dobie]

That makes sense, but unfortunately I can't really see any difference in the thickness of any wires. There was a post over on moparts from a guy saying that wires "N" and "Q" were two of the main feeds into the ignition switch/cluster harness. I'm assuming that it's probably one of those wires. I pulled out the shop manual, found those wires and looked them over last night. They seem to be in order, but maybe old age has something to do with it as well.

 

[Big John]

This may help.

http://www.allpar.com/history/mopar/electrical.html

 

[dobie]

Yeah, it will.

Thanks!