electrical restoration

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glhx

glhx

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the plug on my fire wall is falling apart. the wires on the outside plug keep slipping in and out making the car not run. i want to know where and how to repair this. i know i will need the special connectors the slide into the plug. and then the 3 plugs that go into the firewall. who sells this stuff at a reasonable price
 
Are you talking about the bulkhead? Sounds like you might have to get a new harness from somewhere like Year One, unless you can find a donor car.
 
Find the madelectrical webpages related to the bulkhead connecter. The wiper harness plug and light harness plug are probably fine. Its the high amp wires in the engine harness plug ( charging system ) that give problems.
 
You can just replace the connectors themselves inside the plastic body of the bulkhead connector. They are "Stay-Con" brand 1/4" connectors, and are available from companies that specialize in electrical connectors. If you read some of the other threads under this topic heading, you will find links to some of those companies.

If you have options such as a headlamp motor (Dodge Charger), a heavy-duty alternator, tachometer, cruise control or a manual transmission (start switch), you will have separate mini-harnesses going through the firewall in separate holes near the bulkhead connector. I think Ma Mopar deliberately varied the type of connector used on these so that the assembly line workers wouldn't hook up these accessories to the wrong circuit. I find that usually the best thing is to send a sample of the connector to the electrical connector company and have them identify it.
 
thanks for all the info. i should be able to come up with something on that. it is the bulkhead connectors. the plastic on the male plug will no longer hold the terminal for the metal male connector. The connector houses the start wire and the run wire. the car will start but when the keyswitch springs back the car wont stay running. took a while to figure that one out. i thought about drilling the bulkhead and running the wire straigt thought but would rather not. the wire wont lock into the bulkhead.
 
If it were me, I'd fix the plastic housing with plastic epoxy or ABS cement so that it would retain the Stay-Con terminals correctly. Of course, I'm a cheapskate. Not only that; it might be hard to find a replacement housing.
 
thats a good idea. year one does have them, but the shipping is as much as the part. its $30 for just one of those 3 male ends. i did find new stay con connectors.....they are called the packard 56 style terminals
 
Year One, what a joke. They must think car people are made of money. There sure are a lot of people who try to make a killing off of us car nuts, aren't there?

Double-check me, though, glhx, about whether the connector housing is made of ABS plastic or not. I just sort of assume that all the black plastic stuff on cars is ABS because most often it is, but maybe the Mopar bulkhead connectors are made of some other kind of plastic, in which case ABS cement probably wouldn't work. But plastic epoxy will work for sure. I don't know if the instructions that come with plastic epoxy tell you this or not, but when using it, it helps if you rough up the surface of the plastic to get rid of the shiny surface gloss, and clean it with alcohol to remove any oil that may have gotten on it from your skin when you handled it, before you apply the epoxy. It melts the surface of the plastic a little bit and bonds with it really strongly.

Good luck!
 
Ive been hunting for a source like PCS for a while, you will not find a better collection of parts or prices as whole.
Thanks
Andrew
 
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