72 Duster Resurrection
This is a lot of info to take in, some of which you can use right away to get the car running. Some at a later date while driving/fixing up
What i have done in the past is unpin the wires from the bulkhead connectors 1 wire at a time, clean the male or female spade, squeeze the female to hold the male a little tighter and reinstall. Then remove and clean the next wire end. This way they dont get mixed up. A cup of CLR or tarnex, and a steel wire brush to clean. Use rinse water, and blow dry w compressed air, then reinstall. When done use electrical connector grease. I got mine at the local harley davidson dealer. This insures continuity, and keeps moisture out. This is slow going but will eliminate a lot of issues at the bulkhead
On female spades i made a removal tool out of a jewelers screwdriver to slip in and bend the lock tab in to remove the spade from the plastic connector. On the males a pair of small needle nose plyers to squeeze them in and release the lock tab. On installation bend the lock tabs back in place to lock the male and female spades back into the connector. If unsure of how to depin the connectors, i'd get a few junk ones you can practice on first.
You may want to concider doing an ammeter bypass down the road as well. You alternators full output goes through the bulkhead, into the ammeter, and back to the battery. Over time as the connectors corrode the bulkhead connection gets hot and will melt the wiring at this junction. The bypass eliminates this problem but requires you to remove the ammeter from the circuit. The bypass is pretty easy to do, and you can put a sun volt gage in place of the ammeter and have it all appear stock. Theres several threads on fabo about the bypass, and on the sun voltmeter refit.
I also went with dimmable 5630 led strip lighting for my gages. The stock lighting is too dim in spots. Its very easy to do. Just peel and stick to line the perimeter of the gage housing. It has a cut line and solder spots every 3 light segments. Its super cheap too about $5 - $7 for 5 meters (about 15 feet) and comes in a multitude of different colors. The pix with it lit up are shown using a 9v battery. The led strip is incredibly efficient. You will notice in my last gage pic the ammeter looks like its on full discharge. Its actually the afore mentioned sun voltage gage i dissassembled and modded to fit using the the ammeter face and ammeters gage needle on the volt gage.
See below pix of the ammeter bypass schematics. Diagram A is stock wiring. Diagram B is the bypassed wiring. This is a good thing to do especially if you decide to upgrade your alternator to a higher output one for a stereo, or EFI or other accessories. The bypass wiring schematic shows to run the wires thru the firewall and eliminate the connection point at the bulkhead, however if you clean everything up and tighten the connections, and do the bypass, the stock connector shouldent be a problem anymore.
If upgrading to higher output alternator, you will need to increase size of alternator to battery wire. I am wiring up my car for a 50A mini denso, the stock wiring is insufficient so i upgraded to #8 gage, with a #12 gage fusible link at the battery connection end.
A lot of guys here do a headlamp relay mod as well. This allows for brighter headlamps, and doesnt run all the amperage through the bulkhead and thru the headlight switch and dimmer switch. Doing this mod and installing a pair of good halogen headlights is about all you need to see well at night. The bottom 2 pix below is the relay box and 35A 5 pin micro relays i got off the net, made by littlefuse and the mounting location i plan on putting it. I wanted something compact , water resistant, as well as somewhat stock looking to blend in to the engine compartment.
My car is still in the mockup stage for the wiring, and mounting and fitting stuff, then it will come apart for final body and paint
I hope all this helps you out.
Matt
This is a lot of info to take in, some of which you can use right away to get the car running. Some at a later date while driving/fixing up
What i have done in the past is unpin the wires from the bulkhead connectors 1 wire at a time, clean the male or female spade, squeeze the female to hold the male a little tighter and reinstall. Then remove and clean the next wire end. This way they dont get mixed up. A cup of CLR or tarnex, and a steel wire brush to clean. Use rinse water, and blow dry w compressed air, then reinstall. When done use electrical connector grease. I got mine at the local harley davidson dealer. This insures continuity, and keeps moisture out. This is slow going but will eliminate a lot of issues at the bulkhead
On female spades i made a removal tool out of a jewelers screwdriver to slip in and bend the lock tab in to remove the spade from the plastic connector. On the males a pair of small needle nose plyers to squeeze them in and release the lock tab. On installation bend the lock tabs back in place to lock the male and female spades back into the connector. If unsure of how to depin the connectors, i'd get a few junk ones you can practice on first.
You may want to concider doing an ammeter bypass down the road as well. You alternators full output goes through the bulkhead, into the ammeter, and back to the battery. Over time as the connectors corrode the bulkhead connection gets hot and will melt the wiring at this junction. The bypass eliminates this problem but requires you to remove the ammeter from the circuit. The bypass is pretty easy to do, and you can put a sun volt gage in place of the ammeter and have it all appear stock. Theres several threads on fabo about the bypass, and on the sun voltmeter refit.
I also went with dimmable 5630 led strip lighting for my gages. The stock lighting is too dim in spots. Its very easy to do. Just peel and stick to line the perimeter of the gage housing. It has a cut line and solder spots every 3 light segments. Its super cheap too about $5 - $7 for 5 meters (about 15 feet) and comes in a multitude of different colors. The pix with it lit up are shown using a 9v battery. The led strip is incredibly efficient. You will notice in my last gage pic the ammeter looks like its on full discharge. Its actually the afore mentioned sun voltage gage i dissassembled and modded to fit using the the ammeter face and ammeters gage needle on the volt gage.
See below pix of the ammeter bypass schematics. Diagram A is stock wiring. Diagram B is the bypassed wiring. This is a good thing to do especially if you decide to upgrade your alternator to a higher output one for a stereo, or EFI or other accessories. The bypass wiring schematic shows to run the wires thru the firewall and eliminate the connection point at the bulkhead, however if you clean everything up and tighten the connections, and do the bypass, the stock connector shouldent be a problem anymore.
If upgrading to higher output alternator, you will need to increase size of alternator to battery wire. I am wiring up my car for a 50A mini denso, the stock wiring is insufficient so i upgraded to #8 gage, with a #12 gage fusible link at the battery connection end.
A lot of guys here do a headlamp relay mod as well. This allows for brighter headlamps, and doesnt run all the amperage through the bulkhead and thru the headlight switch and dimmer switch. Doing this mod and installing a pair of good halogen headlights is about all you need to see well at night. The bottom 2 pix below is the relay box and 35A 5 pin micro relays i got off the net, made by littlefuse and the mounting location i plan on putting it. I wanted something compact , water resistant, as well as somewhat stock looking to blend in to the engine compartment.
My car is still in the mockup stage for the wiring, and mounting and fitting stuff, then it will come apart for final body and paint
I hope all this helps you out.
Matt
